116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Faith concert kicks off Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival
CEDAR RAPIDS - The first event of this year's Freedom Festival will be a celebration of community and faith in support of a free medical clinic.
Praise on the River, a free concert at McGrath Amphitheatre on June 11, will feature local Christian bands in an effort to raise awareness and funds for His Hands Free Medical Clinic, 400 12th St. SE.
The clinic, which marks 25 years in operation this year, offers free medical, dental, chiropractic, women's health, mental health, physical therapy, prescription assistance and patient advocacy services for uninsured or underinsured clients. All visits are by appointment, and the clinic provides around 3,200 patient visits each year.
'Our goal is anyone who comes through the door receives holistic care,” executive director Dawn Brouwers said.
The clinic aims to offer emotional and spiritual care along with the medical services, with a prayer room and Christian reading materials patients can choose to take, though they do not have to. A healthy living space hosts nutrition classes and meetings, and a small pharmacy fills prescriptions for clients.
For Brouwers, all of this is about more than meeting individual health needs; it is about supporting the community as a whole.
'To me, in order to have a healthy country, state, county, city, you need health care. You need health care to be able to work, to be good parents, be good students. If you don't have health care, your whole community suffers,” she said.
Organizers hope to raise $40,000 at the concert, which would cover the cost of medications and supplies for the clinic for one year. They also hope to use the event to recruit more volunteers - all of the physicians and specialists they work with are volunteers, and the number of patients they can see depends on how many volunteers are available.
Brouwers said after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, the clinic's board of directors thought demands for the clinic's services would drop off. Instead, the population they serve has shifted.
The clinic used to see mostly the poorest of the poor, but many of those clients have been covered by expanded access to Medicaid.
Instead, the clinic is now seeing more working class patients who don't have insurance or who have only catastrophic insurance with high deductibles.
Instead of serving fewer people, they're planning renovations to expand space for patient services and to increase the size of the pharmacy.
Josh Misener, associate pastor and music leader at River of Life Church in Cedar Rapids, said he has seen the clinic's benefits first hand. A friend of his received medical care there several months ago.
Misener's church worship band will take part in the concert. Beyond supporting a good cause, he thinks bringing multiple church bands together creates a sense of community and fellowship between congregations that might not normally interact.
'It's such an easy way to get people to come together, when there's good music and it's outdoors and supporting a good cause,” Misener said. 'We're all bringing our gifts, we're all bringing our music.”
If you go
' What:
Praise on the River
' Where:
McGrath Amphitheatre, 475 First St. SW, Cedar Rapids
' When:
3 to 8 p.m. June 11
Shelli Marin, dental coordinator and hygienist, talks with Steve Black Wolf of Cedar Rapids after taking X-rays of his teeth at the His Hands Free Medical Clinic in mid-May.
Pharmacist Cindy McCoy fills prescriptions and stocks the pharmacy shelves at His Hands Free Medical Clinic.
Lyn McBride, nurse manager, and Mallory Hughes, clinic coordinator, discuss a prescription as nurses look over the clinic schedule at His Hands Free Medical Clinic.
Samuel Asamoah of Cedar Rapids is offered a religious text and a Bible by CJ Zachariasen, a prayer support provider, at His Hands Free Medical Clinic in Cedar Rapids. Prayer support providers offer to pray with patients after their initial intake session with a nurse and before they see a doctor at the clinic..
Dr. Jolynn Glanzer talks with Samuel Asamoah of Cedar Rapids during a follow-up appointment in May at His Hands Free Medical Clinic in Cedar Rapids. The clinic is seeing more working people who have high-deductible health insurance and can't afford to seek medical care.
Bibles in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Swahili are available for patients at His Hands Free Medical Clinic in Cedar Rapids. The clinic is faith-based, and prayer support is part of each appointment.
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette Dr. Jerome Janda talks with a nurse about a patient's prescription at His Hands Free Medical Clinic in Cedar Rapids. The faith-based clinic depends largely on volunteers and donations in order to provide free medical services. A June 11 Praise on the River concert at McGrath Amphitheatre will raise funds for the clinic. It also will be the first event in this year's Freedom Festival,
Stethoscopes hang in the hallway at His Hands Free Medical Clinic.
Daily Newsletters