A Salute to 15 Years: Free Dental Clinic’s Anniversary A Success

Over 100 members of the community gathered on Wednesday, September 21st to celebrate a free clinic’s decade and a half commitment to the health of our underserved neighbors.

Dean Amid Ismail of the Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry at Temple University was honored with the Eugene Jackson Humanitarian Award in recognition of his commitment to oral and overall health issues facing the underserved. In March, HealthLink and Temple University entered into a collaboration expanding the free dental services available to clinic patients to include root canals performed by Dental students and overseen by faculty. Dean Ismail was instrumental in developing this partnership.

Longtime supporters and new friends came together for HealthLink Dental Clinic’s 15th Anniversary Celebration Cocktail Party at Twining Hall in Trevose. The event, intended to be both a salute to the clinic’s past and a stepping stone to its future, featured the jazz music of the Hazelrigg Brothers and hors d’oeuvres from MEI Catering. The evening was captured in photographs by The Moment Photography.

Volunteers – past and present – were recognized as the backbone of HealthLink for donating their most valuable asset – time. Since 2001, volunteers contributed more than 77,000 hours to providing much-needed care to 61,200 clinic patients.

A current HealthLink patient shared her story of struggling with sudden poverty and the hope that a place like HealthLink brought her family. State Representative Frank Farry shared a formal proclamation acknowledging the clinic’s service to the community.

The evening also served as the backdrop to a challenge gift announcement. All new or increased gifts from individuals to HealthLink Dental Clinic made before April 30, 2017 will be matched by Geoffrey and Gretchen Jackson, son and daughter-in-law of the clinic’s founder Eugene Jackson. To support the charity or for more information, visit HealthLink online at www.healthlinkdental.org or call (215) 364-4247.

The Anniversary Celebration was supported by the local business community. Event sponsors included: BB&T Bank, Dr. & Mrs. Bernie Dishler, Penn Community Bank, Fenningham, Dempster & Coval LLP, Henry Schein, Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry, Abington Jefferson HealthLink, Dr. Michele Gladstone & Mr. Neil Gordon, Impact Thrift Stores, Beacon Construction Services, and O’Connell & Company.

Click here to view more photos from the event.

Click here to view the article in the Bucks County Herald on October 6, 2016.

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HealthLink Dental Clinic is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the overall health of qualified low-wage earning adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties by providing free preventative and restorative dental services and oral health education. HealthLink is located at 1775 Street Road in Southampton, Pennsylvania. More information is available online at www.healthlinkdental.org.

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