Once upon a time, Fr. Dan Sanders had an idea to create a clinic to provide healthcare for free to those in need in Walworth County. He wanted the spirit of the clinic to be one where “those who need health care can meet and encounter those who would like to provide healthcare for free.”
Within months of voicing his idea, the very first group of Open Arms volunteers stepped up to create a place where people with no other resources could go for free healthcare. By December 2012, the clinic welcomed its first patients.
Since then, much has changed as Open Arms has evolved to meet changing patient needs and new challenges. What hasn’t changed is the crucial role volunteers play in serving the health and wellness needs of clinic patients.
Open Arms would simply not be able to deliver on its mission to better understand and serve people with compassionsion and deliver high-quality primary care without the invaluable contributions of our volunteers.
MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK
They say that many hands make light work and that is certainly true at Open Arms. Volunteers from all walks of life contribute to the Open Arms mission by providing care to patients and helping with all the other tasks required to keep the doors of the clinic open.
In 2024, volunteers provided over 7,500 hours of service in all areas of the clinic. Volunteer physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, intake screeners and interpreters worked directly with patients while countless other volunteers rolled up their sleeves to tackle many more tasks and projects to help keep the clinic running and the doors open.
WHY OUR VOLUNTEERS MATTER
The contributions of clinic volunteers are significant. Without them, Open Arms could simply not provide high-quality, compassionate care to our neighbors in need in the community. While patients receive their care for free, the healthcare we provide is expensive. Medications, medical supplies, electricity, heat, building maintenance, and more all cost money.
That’s where our volunteers come in. Having a robust group of volunteers relieves a tremendous burden on the clinic’s budget. In 2024, the monetary value of the service provided by volunteers exceeded $850,000. Even paying for half of those services would put a significant strain on the budget.
Year over year, not having that added expense allows for a larger percentage of grants and private donations to support non-personnel operational costs. Without the generosity of our volunteers, Open Arms would either have to serve far fewer patients each year or devote much more time and energy to raising additional funds.
The bottom line – our volunteers matter!
MANY HEARTS MAKE WORK LIGHT
At Open Arms, not only do many hands make light work, but many hearts make work light. In addition to finding affordable health care, many patients at Open Arms face other challenges that impact their health and wellbeing. Our patients also navigate language barriers, low-wage jobs, food insecurity, a lack of safe and affordable housing, access to reliable transportation, limited literacy levels, and discrimination. They are vulnerable on many fronts.
Accompanying others and witnessing the vulnerabilities of fellow human beings can be a heavy consequence of being a volunteer. Yet there is a spirit of hospitality, hope, and light in the clinic, because of the caring and compassionate spirit our volunteers bring to their work. The camaraderie and positive energy displayed each day by our volunteers is priceless. It lightens the emotional load and makes the hard work easier to accomplish.
YOU CAN FEEL IT
This spirit was on full display on a recent Saturday during the clinic’s inaugural Micro Clinic for the Uninsured. By 8:30 AM, 21 volunteers and 8 staff members had gathered in the common area of the clinic for orientation and planning for the day.
Although the doors didn’t officially open until nine, the 18 people with intake appointments were already arriving, and a few more potential patients soon joined the crowd waiting in the lobby. Ready to help, the volunteers, guided by a few key Open Arms staff members, jumped right in to get people enrolled as patients and on their way to better health.
After the last patients of the day headed home, the volunteers gathered to reflect on how the day went and offer feedback. Though there were some bumps in the road, what the volunteers shared was overwhelmingly positive.
“You could just feel it,” said Monica, one of the clinic’s regular volunteer greeters. “The positivity and purpose were palpable.”
Other volunteers shared that it felt very welcoming and it was an opportunity to add to the light. When the world is getting her down, Cathy finds volunteering at Open Arms to be “a great pick-up”, and Lisa, someone who hadn’t volunteered in a while, said “it felt like being home.”
For Donna, it was emotional to share what volunteering that day meant for the people who came in need of help. For those in our community living on the edge, finding health care is a big challenge. Taking care of health needs is often sacrificed at the expense of other basic human needs like food and shelter.
“The people that we serve,” she explained, “are living on the edge.” For some, missing work during the week to come for an intake appointment means missing a meal, missing a rent payment, missing a car payment, possibly even losing their job. So, for those in the community facing this challenge, offering a Saturday clinic could be lifesaving.
The Saturday Clinic means people don’t have to make a choice between work and healthcare. Both can happen, and the positive upward spiral created by better health and continued employment can’t be overstated.
Perhaps Harry, one of the clinic’s regular interpreters, summed it up best. When people visit Open Arms for the first time, they need help, but don’t know quite what to expect. Then, Harry says, “You see their shoulders drop a little, because we’ve given them some hope.”
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Interested in learning more about volunteering at Open Arms Free Clinic?
Apply online.
Better yet – come and visit so you can experience firsthand the spirit of Open Arms.
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