It’s been a year since Henry and Nina Poore opened the Poore Medical Clinic and Sid Davis Memorial Dental Clinic in Sunnyside across from Coconino High School, and Nina cannost wait to show visitors around.
“It’s quite unbelievable,” she said. “Look at the backyard! The Flagstaff Leadership Program took out big stumps and I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was swarming with people with rakes and shovels and brooms!”
No matter how much generosity, support and love flow to the Poores and their clinics, which provide free care to those who are uninsured and living below the poverty level, Nina is surprised, amazed and grateful.
“A year ago, we were sitting on the porch steps here and thinking how much these services could help the community,” she said. “How great to see how far we’ve come a year later!”
Since July 2014, the east Flagstaff medical and dental clinic has served hundreds of people. “We are the only free medical clinic in Northern Arizona and, according to the Arizona Dental Association, we are the only free dental clinic in the state,” said Executive Director Eric Walden. The Poores have operated another facility, the Poore Medical Clinic, on Humphreys and Fine for four years.
During the Sunnyside clinic’s one-year anniversary celebration on Saturday, July 18, Margarita Castruata brought her 10-year-old son to schedule an appointment. “This is our first time here,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful. The people in the neighborhood are poor and no one is tending to teeth and mouth issues.”
Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours honored the Poores with a proclamation, “Henry and Nina Poore have stepped up to fill this need with two free medical clinics; and, on this first anniversary of the second one, the City of Flagstaff officially recognizes the Poores for their outstanding contributions to the people of Flagstaff.”
“It’s been a rewarding endeavor and a wonderful service to the neighborhood and the city,” said Dr. Dale Hallberg, D.D.S., co-director of the dental clinic’s board of directors with Dr. Jonathan Robinson, D.D.S, “It’s a great feeling to help out and a nice change of pace.”
“Volunteering and helping people is good for both sides,” said Robinson. “The community stepped up and literally put this place together.”
Roofers, carpenters, painters, electricians and others have volunteered their services to create the clinic at 2700 N. Izabel Street. It has three rooms with dental chairs and equipment, and two medical examination rooms. “Some of the original dentists have retired, so we need more dentists to help out,” said Hallberg.
The dental clinic is named after Dr. Sid Davis, D.D.S., who owned the building and died in a motorcycle accident. Davis had served patients from Flagstaff and the Reservation.
Through the generous support of the Davis family and others, along with volunteer dentists, doctors, hygienists, physician assistants and clerical personnel, the clinic is able to operate. The Poores’ main fundraiser is the annual Beans and Rice event, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Orpheum Theater. Tickets for the evening of music, storytelling, a raffle and live auction are $15.
“Babbitt Ranches always supplies us with a steer, quartered, vacuum packed and frozen that we auction off,” said Dr. Henry Poore, M.D. “We’re very appreciative of the Babbitts’ support. Last year, the beef brought in $2,800.”
Beans and Rice is a carryover from a tradition started by the late Dr. Charles Sechrist, M.D. He kept a 50-pound sack of pinto beans and a 50-pound sack of rice, along with a stack of paper bags at his practice. “He said, ‘Help yourself. That’s for my poor people,’” said Poore. FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN