Four women with various specialties and positions in the county are collaborating to bring a unique pop-up free clinic to the Butler Intermediate High School this fall.

The Remote Area Medical (RAM) Volunteer Corps clinic will set up its huge operation at the school on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11 and 12.

Anyone can come to get no-cost dental cleanings, fillings, extractions and X-rays; vision exams, eye health evaluations and prescription glasses; physical examinations; medication consultations; blood work; women’s health exams; and more.

Glasses for adults will be made the same day, and children’s glasses will be mailed to families within two weeks.

Lynn McKinnis, a physical therapist with Concordia Lutheran Services Visiting Nurses, said RAM provides all equipment and setup free and the Butler Area School District is providing the school space at no charge. Concordia Lutheran Ministries is paying all ancillary costs for the event.

She said she and her co-organizers, Jean Bowen of the Center for Community Resources; Linda Thoma, director of operations at the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center; and SaraBeth Swain, public relations specialist at Concordia Lutheran Services, began meeting six months ago.

The women, known as RAM community host group leaders, must recruit 400 volunteers plus 25 to 30 dentists, optometrists and physicians for each of the two days of the clinic.

Volunteers from the community might spend the day serving food, checking people in, walking people to the area where they need to be, guiding parking, triaging patients or assisting doctors if they are in the medical field.

Bowen said she will get both volunteers and patients from CCR, and the hosts have contacted churches and school superintendents to get volunteer requests sent home to parents and to the Butler Collaborative for Families.

She also will alert Catholic Charities and other entities that support disadvantaged people in the county to ensure everyone who needs treatment will come to the RAM clinic.

Nurses, medical assistants, nursing assistants, and dental assistants and hygienists are a particular need at the event, McKinnis said.

She said those who come to the clinic will not be required to provide proof of income or insurance, and don’t even have to give a name if they choose not to.

She said that in working for Visiting Nurses, she has learned that most people have medical insurance, but many cannot afford the copays or deductibles.

Also, many may have medical insurance on some level, but no dental or vision care.

“RAM is a group that fills that gap between what they can afford and what they need,” McKinnis said.

Thoma said more than 8,000 people in Butler County are uninsured.

“This is a big event,” she said. “We just really hope to splash it all over all four corners of the county.”

Thoma said those whose physical exams or blood work show the need for follow-up care will be seen at the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center after RAM packs up.

“We will work with those patients to make sure they are taken care of,” she said.

The women hope to get 400 to 600 patients at the clinic in November. They hope to bring a RAM clinic to Butler every other year.

“Concordia is fully committed to supporting future RAM clinics,” Swain said.

Bowen said everyone she approaches is very enthusiastic about the event.

“It’s been very well-received,” she said.

For more information on the RAM mission or to sign up as a volunteer, visit ramusa.org.