Kevin’s Community Center Receives Financial Boost

By Kendra Bobowick

Kevin’s Community Center, Newtown’s free medical clinic, has received a $25,000 boost that will support its operations and prescription drug efforts, explained center Director of Development Phyllis Cortese. Worldwide pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation’s charitable arm, the Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation, Inc, made available the generous funding.

Visiting Kevin’s Community Center this week was foundation President Amy Fry, accompanied by Corporate Communications Manager Marybeth C. McGuire. Ms Fry said, “The focus is access to health care,” she said, acknowledging the number of people in circumstances without health care. Ms Cortese and others at the center, including Advisory Board Coordinator Mary Marinaccio and Clinic Director Linda Pinckney, sympathize with the variety of situations that may leave a person without adequate access to medical treatment.

Ms Cortese explained that a lot of the people she sees are employed, but may make too much to qualify for state assistance, and not enough for insurance. At other times life’s circumstances may leave people financially unable to compete with the costs of health care.

The $25,000 will bolster the center’s prescriptions and operations. The center now provides some prescriptions through free samples, patient-assistance programs, and by referrals to the Drug Center Pharmacy of Newtown, which sells prescriptions at cost. “With the grant we can provide pharmaceuticals we otherwise can’t get,” Ms Cortese said.

Kevin’s Community Center is a nonprofit, free medical clinic founded in 2002 by Dr and Mrs Z. Michael Taweh of Newtown, in memory of their son Kevin. The clinic instantly made health care accessible to those who had no choice but to let longstanding health issues go untreated. Since the clinic opened its doors, KCC has served more than 1,000 patient visits. In 2005, the center  provided more than $500,000 of free medical services.

According the website, www.kevinscommunitycenter.org, “Our mission is to provide free health care for residents over the age of 16 who are uninsured or under insured and have limited financial resources.”

Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies headquartered in Germany, which operates globally with 144 affiliates in 45 countries. The US corporate headquarters is in Ridgefield. The Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation’s mission is to improve lives through philanthropic contributions and donations of health care products and resources.