Approximately 150 low-income individuals received free dental and visual care Saturday and Sunday at an annual clinic at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Funding for the clinic is provided through the Blanche W. Grady Community Service Award.

Grady, for whom the award is named, said, “I think the visual part of the clinic is probably the one that is closest to my heart, because I was a first-grade teacher forever, and I discovered some visual problems that made all the difference in the world,” she said.

“It wasn’t too hard to discover some visual problems with first-graders.

“One little girl was just bubbling when her examination was over, and she got her glasses and was given a book to read. She exclaimed, ‘Now I can see,’” Grady recalled.

She said she also knows how important the clinic is to those who receive free dental care.

“Some of them have probably never been in a dental chair before,” she said. “It may be frightening, a little, but they are so proud of the job when it’s finished.”

Seventy-eight people received dental care at the clinic, and 67 received visual care. Thirteen people were referred to dental professionals for their needs.

The estimated value of the care provided was $35,611, Weemes said, bringing the total amount of care provided over eight years to $241,611.

Niswongers Are Benefactors

The Blanche W. Grady Community Service Award Endowment is a fund within the Laughlin Health Care Foundation.

Benefactors of the endowment are Scott Niswonger, a local business leader and philanthropist, and his mother, Sharon Niswonger.

The clinic, founded in 1999, also is made possible through the work of local visual and dental professionals, the Greene County Health Department, Remote Area Medical (RAM) and community volunteers.

Visual and dental services were free-of-charge for those who qualified earlier and were given appointments for care during the clinic.

Second Harvest Food Bank in Gray provided large packages of free food to clinic participants.

Tyre Culbertson, a past winner of the Grady award, who said it is rewarding for him to be able to help.

“I’ve seen this program since its conception. I see the good that it does and the people that it helps,” he said.

He said statistics show dental and visual care are among the highest needs in this region, and so few resources are available.

Professional Volunteers

Volunteering dental professionals were: Craig Shepherd, chairman; Jeffery Clark, David Dykes, Kevin Hartman, David Jones, John Lamons,  Nathan Renner, Jon Rogers,  James R. Williams and Fernando Ochao.

Volunteering visual professionals were: Brad Emde and Shelly Shaw, co-chairmen; Dale Brown Jr., Thomas Brown, John Clement, Luke L. Ellenburg Jr., Dale Grant, William Smead, Laura Urban, Pete and Marietta Vestel and Allen Yandell.

Comfort Inn, Jameson Inn and Hampton Inn provided overnight accommodations for RAM volunteers, a Knoxville-based health-care team that travels throughout the world providing free care.

Feeding the volunteers were several local restaurants and businesses: Central Park, Fatz, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, Brick Oven, Wendy’s, Papa John’s, Professional Vending, Laughlin Memorial Hospital Dietary Department and Food City.

Other volunteers included: Northeast Regional Smile Station, Jackie Neas and Greene County Health Department volunteers, nursing students, hygienists, dental assistants, Laughlin Health Care Foundation board members and Greeneville High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) members.