Celebrating 22 Years of Service to the UninsuredThis year, our annual Celebration of Care

Gala was held on April 16th, 2015, in The

Radisson Blu Aqua Atlantic Ballroom.

More than 300 guests attended and

helped raise over $400,000 in support

of CommunityHealth.

Event sponsors included: Baxter,

Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation,

Lundbeck, BlueCross BlueShield of

Illinois, Neal Gerber & Eisenberg,

AstraZeneca, Catamaran, AbbVie,

Advocate Health Care, Aetna, Astellas

USA Foundation, University of Chicago

Medicine, Walgreens, and many more.

Our Visionary Award was presented to

Rebekah Kohmescher, who has volunteered

with CommunityHealth for over 15 years. She

has assisted with managing clinic finances

and implementing the accounting software

the health center uses to this day. Rebekah

currently serves as Board Treasurer.

We were pleased to present our inaugural

Corporations that Care Award to Neal,

Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, whose employees

have been providing pro bono counsel to

CommunityHealth since 2009.

Former patient Greg Van Hyfte shared his

personal story of how CommunityHealth

provided him with care when he did not have

insurance. While still a patient, Greg also

volunteered to teach a special yoga class

designed for individuals suffering from lower

back pain, and he spoke about how his

experiences building up the yoga program at

CommunityHealth inspired him to continue

teaching yoga in Chicago.

Guests participated in an open appeal, Heads

or Tails, a wine pull, and a live auction with

prizes ranging from an exclusive golf getaway

in Michigan to an incredible painting of

former Bears Head Coach Mike Ditka by

local artist Elliott From.

We are so grateful to all that attended and

contributed to making this year’s Celebration

of Care a truly wonderful event!2611 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago IL 60622 (773) 395-9901 | www.communityhealth.org

Volunteer Appreciation MonthApril was National Volunteer

Appreciation Month, and – with over

1,400 volunteers – we had a lot of

appreciating to do! Manager of Volunteer

Services Ava Zeligson developed a

tiered system of recognition with prizes

distributed based on the number of

hours contributed.

185 volunteers who have provided

over 100 hours received ribbons to

attach to their volunteer IDs.

To find out more about our

dedicated volunteers, please visit

communityhealth.org/volunteer.

JUNE 2015

for supporters of CommunityHealth, the nation’s largest free clinic

Volunteer Dr. Yolanda Hardy shows off her CommunityHealth tattoo.

Rebekah Kohmescher (c) received the Visionary Award.

Patients Enjoy Nutrition Day EventsThe month of May brought dozens of community members and

patients eager to learn about the various ways they can improve

their diets to our two health centers for Nutrition Day.

At the events, there were discussions about the benefit of setting

goals and keeping food diaries, which were provided to all

participants. Attendees learned how many servings of each food

group are recommended each day and talked about the barriers

they face to following these guidelines. For example, many struggle

with finding fresh fruits and vegetables in their communities.

Participants openly discussed this problem, shared stories, and

provided examples of various locations they can go to get the

food that they need.

There was also a discussion regarding portion control and how to

measure a serving size. Finally, attendees made their own ranch,

honey-lime, and basil pesto salad dressings and learned how to

prepare it at home, too, to help make eating salads more exciting.

Everyone was impressed by how delicious and healthy their homemade

dressings were compared to ones they normally purchased!

CommunityHealth offers several classes on cooking and healthy

eating, utilizing Share Our Strength’s “Cooking Matters”

curriculum. With many of our patients dealing with diabetes and

cardiovascular issues, CommunityHealth focuses not just on the

treatment of existing conditions, but also on the prevention of

further illness through good nutrition. From the classes

CommunityHealth offers, individuals are able to take what they

learn and apply it at home, sharing the importance of healthy

eating with their children and other family members.

healthlinksSUMMER 2015

Volunteer Marta Majcherska taught patients to make their own salad dressing.

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

Kseniya MasterovaNeighborhood: Rogers Park

Occupation: Biology and Physics Student Loyola University Chicago, Rhythmic Gymnastics Coach

Volunteer Role: Triage

Why did you begin volunteering at CommunityHealth?

I came to CommunityHealth because I wanted to have a hands-on

experience with helping people in my community.

Do you remember your first day? What surprised you?

On my first day, I was nervous about messing up a blood glucose

test and having to do it over. When I was walking that patient over

to the orange chairs, I passed out! When I came to, I was on the

floor with the patient standing over me and a doctor taking my

pulse. It was surprising that even though I had practiced and felt

good about taking a blood glucose test on my peers in training,

when it came to the real deal, I didn’t realize I would be so

nervous about hurting the patient and causing him discomfort.

What has kept you volunteering all this time?

I think that, being in triage, volunteers have the ability to set the

tone of a patient’s visit. If they have a good experience with you,

you make their visit less stressful. A lot of the time, patients come

in nervous, worried, or scared. By being friendly, welcoming and

reassuring, triage volunteers can help ease their stress and make

their overall experience easier just by smiling and talking to

them. Being able to make someone’s day better and help

them out brightens my day.

What is something that not a lot of people know about

you but you wish more people could know?

I have always been fascinated with space since I was a little kid

and wanted to be an astronomer at NASA to look for life on Mars.

Although my goals have changed a bit since then, I now aspire to

be a NASA Flight Surgeon and study space medicine. I want to be

able to contribute to the space industry and be able to help make

human expansion into space possible. I’ve now been accepted

for my dream internship - studying the lifetime surveillance of

astronaut health in the Space Medicine Division at the Johnson

Space Center in Houston, Texas.

CommunityHealth Hosts New Coptic ClinicOn Saturdays, CommunityHealth is

buzzing with activity; patients stepping on

and off the scale, blood pressures being

taken, and prescriptions being filled. But if

you look closer, you may notice a very

special addition to our clinic offerings

occurring: CommunityHealth now

provides a Coptic clinic for patients at the

West Town clinic. This clinic operates

every Saturday with both Coptic

volunteers and patients. The Coptic clinic

is yet another illustration of

CommunityHealth’s commitment to

identifying and caring for the underserved

in an environment that is both

linguistically and culturally sensitive.

The English word copt is taken from an

Arabic word meaning “Egyptian.” Today,

Coptic refers specifically to Egyptian

Christians. There are over 18 million

Coptic Christians in the world, with

hundreds of thousands living in the

United States. In the past 40 years,

Chicago has seen an increase of Coptic

immigrants with the development of three

new Coptic churches since the 1970’s.

The relationship between

CommunityHealth and the Coptic

community began after Mina Kerolos, a

member of the Coptic community, began

volunteering as a pharmacist with

CommunityHealth and saw the

opportunity for serving others within his

community. He was able to recruit other

volunteers within the Coptic community,

like Dr. Joseph Yacoub, who works as a

volunteer physician at the clinic. Dr.

Yacoub explains the need for care within

the Coptic community, “In the past 5 to 10

years, more and more immigrants have

moved to Chicago, and conditions for

these individuals are not great. Medical

needs are not being met, and there are

few places that people know of to go.”

Dr. Yacoub goes on to explain that Mina

began the conversation about the clinic

with people at local Coptic churches, and

that CommunityHealth was very open to

the idea of starting such a unique clinic.

“As medical professionals, we believe that

we have a blessing to share to an

underserved population, and we are very

willing to work.” Mina was able to do

outreach of his own to register patients

before they even came to the clinic,

because most of the Coptic patients do not

live close to either of CommunityHealth’s

locations (most reside in the suburbs).

Their efforts were quite successful: “Mina

was able to register 60 patients within

the first month of the clinic opening,”

Dr. Yacoub explains.

The Coptic clinic is continuing to grow

with each passing Saturday. The hard

work that Mina, Joseph, and other

volunteers have put into developing this

clinic is a further testament to the breadth

and depth of care at CommunityHealth,

made possible by private donations and

passionate volunteers. CommunityHealth

is honored to fulfill our mission by caring

for yet another underserved population

within the city of Chicago.

CommunityHealth Graduates New Patient Health LeadersIn April, CommunityHealth welcomed two new graduates of the

Promotores de Salud program, also known as the Patient Health

Leaders program. Blanca and Zenaida completed a six-week course,

which included Saturday classes that focused on nutrition and chronic

disease prevention. They will now be able to work as clinic volunteers,

engaging with Spanish-speaking patients and leading classes in the

Health Education department.

Promotores de Salud are either CommunityHealth patients or

community members who share similar cultural and life experiences

as the patient population. This shared experience allows them to

connect with patients on a deeper level.

Volunteer instructors Danny Parsons, Christina Rojas and Emily

Graber are all medical students from UIC’s Urban Medicine Program,

which is a competitive program that selects 30 students out of several

hundred applicants to engage with members of disadvantaged

communities in order to prepare the students to work in urban

communities. They all worked together to create the curriculum for

this program from the ground up. They sought out a national

organization that deals directly with community health workers to

create a program that would best fit the Spanish-speaking population

at our West Town health center.

CommunityHealth has been impressed by the level of dedication

demonstrated by both instructors and students in this program. The

program will continue to train new Promotores, developing our own

population of community health workers who can make a real impact

on the health of their neighbors.

healthlinksSUMMER 2015

Zenaida (c) with Danny Parsons and Emily Graber.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Valery E. Gallagher, PresidentJames M. Durkin, Vice PresidentRebekah Kohmescher, TreasurerAndrew Palumbo, SecretaryBabs Waldman, M.D., Medical Director

Brenda Battle, MBA, BSNRebecca S. Busch, RNDavid CousinsSandra F. Durley, PharmDMelissa GinterKeith GraffJoseph M. HarringtonWilliam J. HindeKathryn KniolaJohn Koenigsknecht, Esq.Cheryl LuliasMichael Main

Bradley R. MantellH. Scott Sarran, M.D.Thad E. SmithPatrick SpainDaniel Vicencio, M.D.Arnold L. Widen, M.D.Christina WinansSally Benjamin Young

EMERITUS DIRECTORS

John F. BenjaminSerafino Garella, M.D., FounderRobert K. MendonsaJoseph B. O’MalleyArnold L. Widen, M.D.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Judith Haasis

Thinking about your future?Planned giving integrates your charitable gift with your overall

financial, tax, and estate planning goals to maximize benefits to both you and a cause important to you, such as CommunityHealth. To learn more, contact Aleta Rupert, Director of Development, at 773-969-5942 or arupert@communityhealth.org.

Paso a Paso Keeps Women Healthy Through Art and FellowshipMagdalena, Graciela and Luz sit together, carefully tracing flower

petals on the papers in front of them. Occasionally, one of them will

blurt something out in Spanish, causing an eruption of laughter from

the group and several hands slapping the table. These women are all

part of a women’s health group called Paso a Paso that meets twice a

month at CommunityHealth. Paso a Paso and other Health Education

programming at CommunityHealth are open to the public, although

most attendees are current/former patients and their families. The

group offers a safe space for these women to share stories and food

while using artistic expression as a form of therapy.

Magdalena is the youngest of the group and has been a patient with

CommunityHealth for almost four years. She lost the health insurance

coverage that her job provided when the number of hours she was

working decreased. Magdalena is diabetic and needs to take

medication every day to manage her illness. Friends in her

neighborhood told her about CommunityHealth, and she was

immediately drawn to the clinic, not just for the free health services,

but also for the classes that were offered.

Magdalena has lived in Chicago for almost 35 years. She raised her

children here and has grown to consider the city her home after

moving from Mexico City. Her children are older now and live in

different cities throughout the country. Paso a Paso helps her cope with

her depression and has provided her with lifelong friends. “I am able to

socialize here. We all share similar experiences, we are able to tell each

other our ideas and our problems.”

Graciela shares a similar story. She moved to Chicago 24 years ago

from Jalisco, Mexico, and needed to find a free healthcare clinic that

would help her understand some physical symptoms she was having.

CommunityHealth diagnosed Graciela with diabetes and high

cholesterol and started her on medication, helping treat both of

these conditions. Graciela was a patient of CommunityHealth for

nearly 17 years before she became qualified for insurance coverage

through Medicare. Now, Graciela explains that she misses it here:

“I miss the people and the care I received.” Paso a Paso has been her

remaining connection to CommunityHealth, for which she says

she is “incredibly grateful.”

Luz is more timid than the other ladies and speaks softly while she tells

her story. She moved to Chicago 12 years ago from Argentina and

smiles shyly when she shares that she has been married for 5 years

now. She first came to CommunityHealth for the health education

classes that were offered, and she heard from patients in those classes

about the quality of care they were receiving. Luz became a patient and

has been treated for both diabetes and hypertension. She says, “All of

us women walk together from our neighborhood to CommunityHealth.

It has really helped my hypertension.” Luz says that they have been

walking to the West Town clinic for two years now, allowing the

women to socialize more, which helps Luz cope with her depression.

“They treat me very well here. I am going to be able to receive Medicare

soon, and I do not want to leave CommunityHealth.” She pauses, sad.

“They have good coffee here.”

Suddenly, Luz is no longer the quiet one, as her booming laughter fills

the room. The women all hold their hands to their chest, laughing with

one another. They stop to look at each other, and Magdalena shakes

her head, “I am very lucky to have met these women.” And she thanks

CommunityHealth for bringing them all together.