Patients line the block for health care in Tigard

By 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, the line outside of Tigard High School stretched around the building. Hundreds stood in the cold, early morning hours waiting for an opportunity many take for granted: They all hoped to see a doctor.

Compassion Tigard, the one-day health clinic, provided free medical services, dental and vision care to uninsured people across the Portland area.

“These are people who basically need to be seen by a doctor, but for whatever reason, their access is limited,” said Tim Murphy, a Beaverton dentist who volunteered at the clinic.

“If they don’t have the Oregon Health Plan, they normally have to sacrifice something out of the food budget or the gas budget in order to get things done,” he said. “But when you have limited funds, a lot of times that’s not an option. It’s nice to be able to meet that need for them.”

This is the second year for the event.

“Last year, when it started, we didn’t know what to expect,” said Justin Peterson, who organized the event with Compassion Connect. “We didn’t know if anyone would come until we realized there was such a great need here.”

Peterson estimated about 700 people were able to get treatment in a variety of areas, including dental, vision, chiropractic, medical treatments and haircuts.

“We were able to serve more than we did last year,” said Carol Renaud, spokeswoman for the district’s Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, which helped put on the event.

“We had more doctors, more dentists and more volunteers. It went really well and we will continue to have them,” she said.

Compassion Connect hosts health clinics throughout the Portland area, teaming up with local churches and schools to provide free healthcare to as many people as they can.

“These are people who are really dire,” Renaud said. “They don’t have anything else. Some people are coming in sick and need treatment, others have questions like ‘I’ve been feeling a pain here for months, what is it?’ People come for a wide range of issues.”

Patients waited in hallways and corridors for their turn and were treated on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the school’s main lobby, children waited for haircuts and others ate free sandwiches provided by the Tigard-Tualatin School District.

Tags: people health compassion event school tigard vision dental