Children’s clinic expands to see Little Elm patients

Parents start lining up with their children well before the Frisco Cares Children’s Clinic opens at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays during the school year.

The clinic provides free medical care to children without medical insurance who live in the Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, and Frisco areas or who live in Plano or McKinney and attend a Frisco school.

The clinic was started two and a half years ago as a Frisco Leadership project. At first it was run in a van outside of the Acker Special Programs Center in Frisco. The bus had so many mechanical problems the clinic had to be moved. Now the clinic is run from the Primera Iglesia Bautista Church at 8581 5th St. in Frisco. The pastor’s wife, Ivette Ruiz, is the one who suggested the clinic use church space.

Frisco Cares did not see patients from Little Elm when it opened, but it did not turn away parents from Little Elm who brought their children to the clinic. The board decided late last year to officially include Little Elm in the area it covers.

A major goal for the Frisco Cares board of directors and staff is to find a permanent location for the clinic in downtown Frisco. In its own location Frisco Cares would then be able to expand the hours and days the clinic can see patients.

When the school year finishes in June, Frisco Cares board members, staff members, and volunteers then switch to fund-raising mode.

Every board member and volunteer involved with Frisco Cares has a sense of dedication. The one paid staff person, Beatrice Vallejo, is the clinic administrator and spends much of her time finding people to donate to or volunteer at the clinic. She got her husband, Mike, involved. He started out volunteering a few hours here and there. “Before I knew it I was on the board,” Mike Vallejo said. “It’s a working board. We all do whatever we have to. We don’t sit back and watch everybody else do everything. You don’t mind coming because the parents are so happy. As the town grows we will have a bigger need.”

To help Frisco Cares, Lochrann’s Irish Pub and Eatery in Frisco is sponsoring an inaugural golf tournament at The Tribute Golf Course in The Colony on June 19.

Lochrann’s owners, Deina and Dave McNabb wanted to be involved with the community by having a golf tournament. Timothy Heines, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi, and others in Frisco suggested Frisco Cares as a good organization to support with fund-raising efforts.

“We’ve had great support from our vendors. They’ve given a lot to this event,” said Deina McNabb, who is organizing the tournament.

Lochrann’s staff members also are supporting the event. One of the silent auction items is a dinner for four cooked by Lochrann’s chef Nik Logan. Who will cook the dinner either at the pub or a private home.

Tournament contests include a $1,000 prize for a hole-in-one. Four FC Dallas players will be playing in the tournament. They will either play all on one team, or McNabb said teams might have a chance to bid on getting an FC Dallas player as a team member for the tournament.

“I’ve heard about the growth of Frisco Cares, and now they’re reaching out to Little Elm,” McNabb said. “They are also in need of a new facility. Our objective for Lochrann’s is to have a good time, but we also want to help the community.”

Individual players and teams may still sign up. For information on the golf tournament call 214-423-2600.

The next fund-raiser for Frisco Cares is the Kids Helping Kids car wash from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 12 at the Wendy’s at Preston Road and Stonebrook Parkway in Frisco. Many of the volunteers at the car wash will be children who have been patients at the clinic and their parents.

Michelle Suter volunteers at the clinic and is also a Frisco Cares board member. She said the economic slowdown has had an impact on the clinic.

“When I first started working at the clinic,” Suter said, “almost exclusively it was Hispanic families and now we are treating more Caucasians and a diverse group of children.”

Besides its own space, the nonprofit clinic also needs money. “We need to stay in the downtown area of Frisco because people know us,” Suter said.

About 15 to 25 patients are seen in the clinic Wednesdays during the school year. Suter would like to see the clinic be open two nights a week, but that requires a location, more volunteers and especially more money.

“This is for the kids. My children have been without insurance and it’s a very scary thing,” she said. “There is a tremendous need for this clinic in this community. These children are our future and we need to take care of them. They deserve to be healthy.”

For information on donating or volunteering with Frisco Cares Children’s Clinic, call 469-556-8452 or visit www.friscocares.org.

Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****