SEQUIM — A charitable clinic serving uninsured and under-insured people used a simple activity and a simple idea last year to raise both money and health awareness — and, in the process, earned an award bestowed on people who made a difference in their respective communities.
The Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic organized a Family Fun Walk last October as part of Make a Difference Day.
It was the 14th observance of the annual coordinated day of volunteer service, but it was the first time the clinic had held a walking event.
As a result, the clinic is listed with other award winners in today’s issue of USA Weekend, the magazine included with the Sunday Peninsula Daily News and other newspapers nationwide.
“We keep trying to find ways to help the community think about wellness,” said Amanda Beitzel, president of the clinic’s board of directors.
In previous years, the clinic had organized a health fair to coincide with its anniversary each October.
Last year, however, it joined a larger, Peninsula-wide health fair, and were left without an anniversary event.
Clinic director Mary Griffith said clinic leaders picked walking as an activity because it’s simple, accessible and very healthy.
“Most everybody can walk,” said Griffith. “Just to get out and move makes your body healthier.”
“And it was only two miles, so I think everybody made it,” added John Beitzel, city councilman and treasurer for the clinic’s board of directors.
Simple walking
Beitzel noted that several conditions common to area residents — diabetes, obesity, depression and chronic conditions — can be helped by a simple physical activity like walking.
“The one common denominator to helping all those things is exercise, and walking is the cheapest, easiest kind there is,” he said.
“One of the great things about exercise is the effects are cumulative, so you don’t have to do it all at once.”
Last year’s event drew 25 people. The clinic plans to repeat the walk this year and has a goal of 100 participants.
The clinic, located at 923 N. Sequim Ave., opened in 2001 and has served about 2,000 patients since then. It is staffed by volunteer doctors, nurses and office personnel. Services offered — many of them free — include treatment of acute and chronic illnesses, access to discounted medicines and help with pharmaceutical programs, and referrals for laboratory work, x-rays and medical specialties. There is also a dental program.
‘Working segment’
Most patients, Amanda Beitzel said, are between the ages of 30 and 50 — “the working segment of the community that, for whatever reason, doesn’t have insurance.”
Without access to a free clinic, she said, most of them would end up in an emergency room, which is tremendously expensive.
For more information about the clinic, go to www.sequimfreehealthclinic.com or call 360-582-0218.
