Flint Hills Community Clinic

The Flint Hills Community Clinic is utilized by so many community members that there is currently a two-week waiting list for patients to be seen. Administrative coordinator, Meghan Finnegan, casually mentions that it's for this reason that the clinic tries not to advertise its services, afraid that any more new patients would hinder their ability to help others efficiently.

"We're strictly word-of-mouth referrals and referrals from other agencies. We don't have signs and I don't even think we're listed in the phonebook," said Finnegan.

A free clinic for uninsured, low-income residents of Manhattan, Kansas, the clinic has seen 2,300 individuals and provided more than 6,500 appointments since it opened in July of 2005. The clinic boasts a staff of 150 doctors, nurses and phlebotomists who offer primary care, and acute- and chronic- care services. With no federal, state or city funding, staff and operational costs are covered entirely by grants and donations.

"We rely on the compassion of others in order to provide compassionate care to those in need," said Finnegan. "It's our mission to understand and serve the health and wellness needs of the medically underserved by providing quality, compassionate and personalized care."

Beyond the health care providers working for and with the clinic, there are a considerable number of volunteers that keep the clinic running smoothly and that go into the community to help in public health education awareness. These volunteers range from college students to retired health care professionals and educators. While the group of volunteers' diversity makes for an effective organization, it posed a unique challenge to Finnegan and her volunteer coordinator when it came time to find a volunteer appreciation gift that would be appropriate and appreciated across the board.

"It was a huge challenge to try and find a gift for our dedicated staff that was both cost-effective and useful to all the volunteers and staff," said Finnegan. "Luckily for us, 4imprint® and the one by one® Program came through and we found the perfect gift of custom water bottles."

Once the water bottles arrived, Finnegan handwrote a thank-you note to each individual volunteer and stuffed it inside of the water bottle. Each day, volunteers continue to trickle in to pick up their gift.

"They're all excited. Our volunteers come here with no intent of getting any sort of acknowledgement or gift. Anything to them is above and beyond," Finnegan explains. "We are all so incredibly appreciative of 4imprint® for helping us do this for them. No one walks in here expecting anything. We all just want to give back. But we couldn't function without our volunteers."

For more information about Flint Hills Community Clinic, please visit http://www.fccmanhattan.org/Site%20Sections/010%20Community%20Partners/Community%20Partners%20Page%20Files/community_partners_flint_hills_community_clinic.htm opens in new window