MOM

MOM…

MOM as in ‘Mission of Mercy’ acts like a Mom since it helps take care of others by providing dental care for the uninsured, the underinsured / anyone who has difficulty with access to a dentist. With today’s economy more and more people have less and one thing that gets neglected/postponed is dental care. Four years ago Mission of Mercy, MOM, the state’s first ever free dental clinic was held in La Crosse and I participated as a volunteer interpreter/translator since I had become aware of this extreme medical need. Twice as many patients attended as expected in ‘09 and each year the numbers have continued to grow with over 3500 patients being treated this past Friday and Saturday in Madison.

Both volunteers and patients travel from within and without the state to participate in the 2 day event. Hundreds line up outside the premises awaiting entry and registration to be triaged according to need. Whether it’s a filling, extraction, partial/cleaning, an approximate $1.75 million in services was provided this year.

I have travelled in previous years to the other MOM sites which have been held in Sheboygan, Wausau and this year’s largest clinic in Madison to help with patients whose first language is not English.

Each year I receive a yellow t-shirt with the different MOM locales marked on its back. Whenever there is a language need, we are sought out on the clinic floor by our yellow T.

Sponsors donate towards rental space, supplies and food. It also takes a lot of planning to convert gyms/ convention centers into Mash like temporary clinics. Out- of -town observers and politicians visit to view these endeavors. Over 1800 volunteers were involved in Madison either in set up/breakdown and then Friday / Saturday for clinic days. All volunteers donate their time and energies for this important cause. The patients are so appreciative and the thank you notes, handshakes/ hugs are not an uncommon occurrence.

Next year we will be in Lake Geneva and 2014 it'll be in Green Bay. It sure would be nice if people didn’t have to wait to be seen by a dentist. BUT it looks like we won’t be seeing any relief in our dental care anytime soon. MOM clinics will be initiated in 25 other states as the need is apparent in a broken health care system.
Until we fix it, I will have to leave the End of the Rainbow Valley to volunteer. A roof over one's head, food, water and health care are basic human rights and we should all be working to provide these for all of us...