Medical clinic fund-raising kicks off

More than 50 people have made commitments to help rescue the Ross Medical Clinic within days of an article about the clinic appearing in the Nevada Appeal.

According to Friends In Service Helping Director Monte Fast, 22 people walked in and another 30 called with $240 pledges to support the clinic.

Ross Clinic has been running on a grant provided by an anonymous donor for the past five years.

However, Fast said, the grant expires on July 1 and the clinic will have to find another way to support itself.

The cost to run the clinic is $2,700 a month, and Fast hopes to have 150 donors to help keep Carson City's only free medical clinic open.

The clinic is named after Dr. Charles Ross, who started seeing indigent patients at FISH in 1997. A short time after the clinic became a reality in 1998, Ross died suddenly.

Fast is calling donors Dr. Charlie's Angels and says he is confident the clinic will be fully supported by the time July 1 comes along.

"If the trend continues, we won't have a problem," he said. "We should be able to support the clinic and provide some money to the Consuelo Farmer prescription fund."

A fifth of the donations have come from the Minden area, Fast said.

"A lot of people down there knew Charlie well," Fast said. "He was highly respected and I'm sure a lot of his former patients are helping out."

Ross Medical Clinic sees 265 people a month who might not otherwise be able to afford medical treatment.

Fast points out that it costs the clinic $10 a patient, who might otherwise go to the emergency room and cost the hospital as much as $300.

You can help

To become one of Dr. Charlie's Angels, call Monte Fast at Friends In Service Helping, 882-FISH (3474).