Moses Lake church sponsors dental clinic
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Dentists and other dental professionals volunteered their time, and other people volunteered as support staff, at the free dental clinic last weekend at the Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church.
MOSES LAKE — It may have looked like the Crestview Christian School on the outside, but on Friday and Sunday half the building was a dental clinic.
Patients filled out forms and got X-rays and blood pressure checks, then saw the dentist. Just like any dental clinic, except the work was free to the patients. All the dentists, the hygienist, the X-ray techs, the people taking health information were volunteers. It was the second year the Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church has sponsored the free dental clinic.
Patients got their teeth cleaned, fillings, and teeth extracted if necessary. “We have seven dentists here,” said Pastor Clinton Meharry.
Along with the dental clinic, volunteers were cutting hair and a massage therapist was volunteering some services. Volunteers also set up the nacho bar for lunch.
“Everybody here is a volunteer,” Meharry said. Sandy Larsen, who organized the clinic – and yes, it was a volunteer job – said she had about 60 volunteer workers in addition to the medical professionals. They ranged from 10 years of age up to about 80, she said.
Dentists came from Hermiston, Olympia, Spokane, Yakima, Sunnyside and Quincy as well as Moses Lake, Meharry said.
The church worked with Caring Hands International, an Adventist charitable organization based in Eugene, Ore. A member of the Moses Lake church met its founder at a conference and invited him and the clinic to Moses Lake, Meharry said.
Founder Randy Meyer said he provides all the tools, the dental chairs and equipment, and the host church provides the medical professionals and support staff. “It takes a lot of planning,” Larsen said.
All the staff is volunteer, but it does cost to keep the truck running and on the road, so the host church has some expenses. “That’s one of the things the yard sale is for,” Meharry said.
Oh, yeah, the yard sale. The yard sale was going strong Friday morning, despite the 90-degree-plus heat. It was in its last day, but it was still attracting a crowd.
Money raised through the yard sale also goes toward finishing the interior of the church. The exterior is complete but the interior still needs work, Meherry said.