Sugar Creek Kiwanis Donates to Free Clinic

Crawfordsville, IN — The membership of the Crawfordsville Sugar Creek Kiwanis Club recently donated $5,000 to help the Montgomery County Free Clinic (MCFC) with its building project.  

The donation was made possible through many fundraising projects the club members participated in over the years.

“Among the many local organizations the club was able to support financially over the years was the Well Baby Clinic,” said Kiwanis member Phil Boots. “We felt that this donation was an opportunity to continue that support for the health of the community here in Montgomery County.”

The Sugar Creek Kiwanis Club was organized 40 years ago as a breakfast club and grew to over 50 members. Due to declining membership, the club disbanded earlier this year, though two of the club’s founding members, Don Avery and Charles Homsher, were still active members.

“The Sugar Creek Kiwanis Club has sponsored the Christian Nursing Service for 40 years and we are so grateful for their continued support,” said Dr. Janet Rucker, President of the MCFC Board.

Montgomery County Free Clinic, Inc., was established in 2009 when Christian Nursing Service (CNS), a free clinic in Montgomery County since 1968, invited community stakeholders to meet to determine how to provide medical and dental care for uninsured people in the community. The outcome of those meetings was a new organization, the Montgomery County Free Clinic, which became an affiliate clinic of the national Volunteers in Medicine organization.

The free clinic, named the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic, received a $900,000 matching grant from North Central Health Services in 2011. The Board continues to raise matching funds to purchase, remodel, and equip a new facility in the old Main Source Bank building on Mill Street. Construction and renovation is well underway and the facility is expected to open in summer 2013.

“Five years ago a group of Montgomery County citizens gathered at Wabash College to imagine the future of Christian Nursing Service,” said founding Board member Bill Doemel. “Now, five years later, thanks to the faith of Montgomery County citizens, construction of the new Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic has started. Citizens stepped forward in hard times to lend a hand, to give generously, and to support the idea. On behalf of the uninsured, thank you Montgomery County; thank you Kiwanians.”

For information on how to make a gift in support of the Dr. Mary Ludwig Free Clinic, visit the website at mcfreeclinic.org or contact the Montgomery County Community Foundation. 

The Ludwig Clinic, in collaboration with CNS, will provide medical and dental services to medically uninsured residents of Montgomery County who meet 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines ($29,140 for a family of two, $44,100 for a family of four, and $59,060 for a family of six).