Last week I attended the eighth birthday celebration of Volunteers In Medicine, a group of people who drew together a dozen years ago to build a health clinic for the medically underserved. The clinic opened its doors to the people of Cape May County eight years ago.
What was the spark which ignited this effort? Dr. Joe Salvatore and his wife Annie, Tom Scott, head of Burdette Tomlin Hospital, among others had learned about the work of Dr. Jack McConnell in South Carolina and decided to replicate it here.
McConnell is a prosperous retired physician and had moved to Hilton Head to relax and play golf. While there he became aware of the unmet medical needs of much of the population. He decided that instead of playing golf, he was going to use his skills to help those people. He formed the nations first Volunteers In Medicine clinic.
The Salvatores and others visited the McConnell’s clinic and invited him to come speak to some Cape May County people and to assist in the efforts in forming a VIM clinic here. Tom Scott hosted the meeting in the hospital board room. I was there and experienced this man as he poured out his heart.
Afterward I told Dr. McConnell that I had been moved by his gentleness, his love and his compassion for his fellow man, and that as I listened to him speak, I saw in him the figure of Christ.
The clinic was launched and I had the honor of being one of the board members. Over the course of the years that the clinic has been open, it has gone from two days a week and having a skeleton staff to now being open five days a week with over 100 volunteers.
What is the driving force which causes Volunteers in Medicine of Cape May County to thrive? It is that same love and concern for one’s fellow man which McConnell exemplified. I can say that from having been there from the beginning, and can say that it is still there after hearing Medical Director Dr. Marna Cutler’s warm, heart-felt and supportive address to the team last week.
***
We all know that there is a lot wrong with the world, but there is an awful lot right as well. Please read Dr. McConnell’s words below. They touch me and I believe they will touch you.
May we have eyes to see those
rendered invisible and excluded, open
arms and hearts to reach and include them,
healing hands to touch their lives with love,
and in the process, heal ourselves.
—Dr. Jack McConnell, Founder of Volunteers in Medicine
ART HALL, publisher
Cape May – The number one reason I didn’t vote for Donald Trump was January 6th and I found it incredibly sad that so many Americans turned their back on what happened that day when voting. I respect that the…
