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2012 Labor Day Parade To Honor Kevin's Community Center

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2012 Labor Day Parade To Honor Kevin’s Community Center

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Newtown Labor Day Parade Committee has selected Dr Z. Michael and Jocelyn Taweh to serve as grand marshals of the 2012 Newtown Labor Day Parade, Monday, September 3. The Tawehs are founders of Kevin’s Community Center, a nonprofit, free medical clinic located in 153 South Main Street. The clinic was founded in 2002 by Dr Taweh and his wife, in memory of their 3-year-old son, Kevin.

Because Kevin’s Community Center has proved to be so valuable to the community, said parade committee president Beth Caldwell, the theme of this year’s parade is also dedicated to the Tawehs: “Honoring Ten Years of Caring for Newtown.”

“We are very surprised, excited, and humbled to be asked to serve as grand marshals of the parade,” said Dr Taweh, speaking for both himself and his wife. “I’m sure there’s a list of a hundred names they could have chosen from,” he said.

He is very proud of what Kevin’s Community Center has accomplished in its first decade. “I definitely feel it is worthwhile,” said Dr Taweh, who runs the clinic and has a private practice in Danbury. Ms Taweh is a volunteer at Kevin’s, along with nearly four dozen other medical and nonmedical volunteers who help the clinic to run smoothly.

“Soon after Kevin passed away, Father Peter Towsley, a priest at St Rose, saw that we were quite understandably depressed. He approached me and suggested we do something in Kevin’s memory to honor him,” said Dr Taweh, recalling the beginnings of the free clinic.

Father Towsley put together a group of 12 people, who brainstormed ideas. “They asked me what I can do; I’m an internist. We realized there was a need for a free medical service to help people,” said Dr Taweh. “Having the connections and support of that initial 12 members made it feasible to do this. To take on an endeavor by myself would not have been possible,” he said.

Initially, as he and his wife talked over the idea of a free clinic, they did not know what the need in Newtown was. “There was no model to follow,” he said.

How much of a need there was locally came as a great surprise.

“I had to do a needs assessment to open a free clinic. I realized that most of our patients are working people, not earning enough to afford insurance, who earn between 100 to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Most are middle income, working families who are underinsured or not insured,” he said.

The problems that he sees in patients at the free clinic have been a surprise, as well. “We thought we’d typically see infectious sorts of illnesses, things like colds or asthma. It has turned out to be anything but that,” said Dr Taweh. “We quickly realized that we needed a much more comprehensive health care center,” he said.

It is thanks to the support of the Newtown community and a broad community of health care providers that Kevin’s Community Center is able to meet the needs of its patients, Dr Taweh stressed. “Without the support of 110 other doctors and specialists, and the auxiliary support of labs and radiologists, we couldn’t do it,” he admitted. “It would have been a very limited practice.”

He is grateful to Housatonic Valley Radiology Associates for providing services to Kevin’s Community Center patients, as well as to Danbury Hospital for free, unlimited lab work. “If we had to pay for it,” he said, “it would be thousands of dollars for our patients.” Kevin’s also receives free referrals through Danbury offices of Physician Services for eye, orthopedist, and oncology needs, he said. Most of the drugs and medical supplies dispensed through the onsite pharmacy are donated by pharmaceutical companies, and volunteers at Kevin’s assist patients in filling out paperwork if brand name drugs are required.

“Occasionally, I send patients to places like Target that offer affordable prescriptions, or Kevin’s pays for some who really cannot afford it. We work closely with other doctors and health care services in the area. We cannot provide just services here. We need those auxiliary services,” he said.

Kevin’s Community Center also thrives thanks to the support of Peter D’Amico, Dr Taweh said, the owner of 153 South Main Street. “They have been very supportive and helpful, charging us only a minimal rent,” he said.

“Good will brings good will,” said Dr Taweh. “Pharmaceutical companies now come to us unsolicited and offer to donate, and community members approach us as to how they can help. This really helps us to make it happen,” he said.

“I see the need every Wednesday, when we are seeing patients. I see every week how much we help these people, by providing services they need, on an on-going basis,” Dr Taweh said.

He is adamant that health care should not be a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. “In a country like the United States,” he stressed, “health care should be a basic right, not a privilege.”

More community clinics would not only cut the cost of health care significantly, said Dr Taweh, but would provide care to the people who most need it, before simple health problems become costly, painful complicated problems. “We need an attitude change in this country,” he said.

It is his hope that Kevin’s Community Center will stand as a model for successful free clinics, and continue to provide quality services to those in need for many more years to come.

Kevin’s Community Center has serviced more than 1,000 patient visits since it opened in 2002, and has provided two million free medical services.

According to the Kevin’s Community Center website, www.kevinscommunitycenter.org, “Approximately 800 families, 3,800 adults, in Newtown alone, have no health care coverage at all… Inspired by the need, our vision is to build an independent facility to increase our capacity to see more patients and to establish a comprehensive health care facility that will include educational programs, a library for health information, and an outreach support center to improve and enrich the lives of those most in need in our communities.”

Kevin’s Community Center is open every Wednesday afternoon, from 1 to 5 pm, by appointment or on a walk-in basis. The office is open on Saturdays for information only.

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