Volunteers at the Heart Mountain Volunteer Medical Clinic observed the end of the clinic's first year of operation July 7 by doing what they always do on Tuesday evenings: Providing free medical care to qualifying people with low incomes.

On Tuesday, those volunteers — doctors, nurses, receptionists, a pharmacist, the clinic manager and other support service representatives — saw or helped 16 patients between 5:30 and 10 p.m.

Among the volunteers, as always, was Dorothy Gibson.

“She is, without a doubt, our Energizer Bunny,” said clinic Executive Director Joanne Cozzens. “She just comes in and does whatever needs to be done, and she's here and there. You'd have to see her in action to really appreciate what she does.”

On Tuesday, Gibson was assigned to help volunteer pharmacist Karen Burk. Another night, she might serve as a receptionist or run errands.

“I pick up wherever they need me at,” Gibson said. “I go over during the week, and if any copying is needed, I make the copies. I help organize the kitchen; we have churches that bring food in every Tuesday night. Then I'm there to clean up afterward.

“If we have a patient who needs to go to the hospital for lab work, I escort them. I do anything they need me to do.”

Gibson describes her volunteer work at the clinic as her passion. But it started inauspiciously enough. She belongs to Faith Lutheran Church, where Pastor Clyde Seifert urged church members to help with the effort to start the clinic more than a year ago.

“I didn't sign up,” she said. “He asked a couple weeks later about anybody who could volunteer to make cookies or whatever. I signed up to do that, and I've volunteered ever since.”

Cozzens said the clinic now sees between 14 and 20 patients each week, most by appointment.

“I attribute the success of this clinic totally to the type of community that this is,” she said. “Our donors give us a lot, but we've got a hospital that has been absolutely awesome, and the churches and pastors have been awesome. We basically have joined the spiritual community of Powell, and it is that spiritual core that contributes to our success.”

Pharmacies, optometrists and physical therapists also have been generous in providing services and supplies, she said.

In addition, the clinic has received an increasing number of donations from businesses, clubs and charities around the Big Horn Basin.

“It's endless,” Cozzens said.

Cozzens noted work is beginning in Cody to establish a branch of the clinic there. While it will take time to organize support and volunteers and raise the money needed, organizers will benefit from the structure and experience of the existing clinic in Powell.

If successful, the Cody clinic would be open on Thursday evenings and would provide another option for people unable to make it on Tuesdays, she said.

Cozzens said she's seen the Heart Mountain Volunteer Medical Clinic in Powell come full circle, from receiving helpful tips from other free clinics in the state, to becoming a role model for them.

“I am in constant communications with the other three clinics in Wyoming in Laramie, Cheyenne and Sheridan,” she said. “I am proud to say that they are picking up on a lot of things that we're doing. When we first were starting, we were following them. Now, they're coming in and saying,

‘Hey, that's a good idea. Maybe I'll try that.' ”

All those efforts are geared toward one thing: Helping people who need medical care and can't afford it, such as Patrick J. Smith of Powell.

Smith, a diabetic, said he couldn't afford the medical care or prescriptions he needed to manage his condition.

“I had to pay other bills,” he said. “It didn't work out too well. When you don't have insurance and you're on disability, there's only so much you can afford.”

Smith ended up in Powell Valley Hospital recently with a potassium level so low that it had started to damage the right side of his heart.

“They told me about this place,” he said.

Now, after being treated at the clinic for three weeks, his condition has improved significantly.

“I feel a lot better,” he said. “I feel like a human being instead of like a vegetable.”

It's success stories like Smith's that motivate clinic volunteers to continue their service.