Missions: Health
American Red Cross Bloodmobile
Unity hosts and sponsors a bloodmobile four times each year. Volunteers are needed to help with publicity, to bake cookies, to encourage donors, to sign-up donors, and to work the canteen the day of the bloodmobile. Most of all, Unity needs people to donate a pint of blood. This is volunteer work you can do lying down!
The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization led by volunteers, guided by its Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross Movement, to provide relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.
The mission of the Red Cross is to fulfill the needs of the American people for the safest, most reliable and most cost-effective blood services through voluntary donations. The American Red Cross empowers ordinary people to perform extraordinary acts of service. Our blood donors are ordinary people – high school students, factory and office workers, business executives, parents and grandparents, and people from every walk of life. But they share one thing – a generous spirit, a desire to give back to their community and help others. Blood donors play an integral role in the delivery of modern healthcare. Many life-saving medical treatments and procedures involve blood transfusions and would not be possible without a safe and reliable blood supply.
Please sign up on line at www.redcrossblood.org and use Sponsor Code: Unity.
Contact Information:
Joyce Sullivan
Links:
http://www.redcrossblood.org/carolinas
RAIN – Regional AIDS Interfaith Network
RAIN is a program which enables volunteers, working in Care Teams, to live out their faith in service to persons living with HIVAIDS. RAIN’s mission is to develop an informed, compassionate response to those persons. Unity has 2 Care Teams who are now working with their care partners. Other teams are needed, as are those who would be willing to help with driving others to doctor’s appointments or to the grocery. There is also a need for occasional babysitting for children while their parents are in support group meetings.
RAIN – the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network – works to provide care and compassion for individuals and families in North and South Carolina who face the daily challenges of living with HIV/AIDS. In addition, they provide prevention education and social awareness to faith and community groups, young people, and clergy. This mission is greatly assisted through CareTeams of volunteers from a diverse collection of congregations to provide practical, emotional, and spiritual support and assistance to those impacted by this disease.
If you are interested in becoming a Care Team Member, please contact Joyce Sullivan.
Unity collects personal/cleaning supplies each January and July, to supply the Catawba Care Pantry / Rain Closet for those living with HIV.
Volunteers are needed to coordinate the RAIN collection:
- to contact the Catawba Care Pantry to confirm Unity’s participation
- to set out the collection bins with an appropriate sign, in the Narthex and Fellowship Hall
- check and empty if necessary to a holding spot marked for Catawba Care
- collect and deliver/arrange deliver of the donations to the Catawba Care pantry.
Contact Information:
Joyce Sullivan
York County Free Clinic
York County Free Clinic is a free medical clinic in Rock Hill, SC for those in need. Medical care is provided by volunteer physicians, nurses, and staff. Eligible applicants are seen Monday – Thursday year-round. Volunteers are needed in Well-Visitor Management, in the clinical area and front desk. Licensed nurses are always needed!
York County Free Clinic (formerly Palmetto Volunteers in Medicine) is the only nonprofit 501C(3) free medical clinic in York County, SC, whose mission targets citizens from ages 18-64 who are uninsured and meet low-income eligibility requirements.
A visit in 2006 to the free medical clinic in Hilton Head, SC, by a few citizens of Rock Hill, SC, inspired the creation of a county-wide committee to study the need and determine if services were warranted here. It was discovered that a free medical clinic was desperately needed in York County. In 2006, York County’s population was approximately 217,000. Over 43,000 were without health insurance and most of those would have qualified because of income. With the need established, the committee pursued funding and set up the clinic that exists today.
In three years, the clinic’s patient load has grown from 0 to about 750 identified patients. The clinic is open 4 days a week and is staffed by a medical doctor, a nurse practitioner, an administrative assistant and a director of development and fundraising. Follow-up care is provided at the clinic and, as necessary, by medical specialists in the area who volunteer their services. Lab procedures and all prescriptions are provided to patients at no cost. Many volunteers serve at the clinic as nurses, lab technicians, receptionists, and screeners.
Contact Information:
Betty Beckham – 803.366.6337
Donations:
Kathy Grier Executive Director