What’s New at Oasis
What’s Happening at Oasis
Giving Voice: Looking Back and Forward
BY BY ANITA RUFF, Executive Director - Oasis Free Clinics It was this time four years ago that our world turned upside down.Returning home from a trip in early March 2020, I noticed a few people wearing masks on theairplane. Despite my public health training, I...
Giving Voice: The Oasis Free Clinics expansion
BY BY ANITA RUFF, Executive Director - Oasis Free Clinics At the end of January, we at Oasis Free Clinics did something groundbreaking: we kicked off the construction and renovation of our new and expanded clinic.Located at 331 Maine St., this expansion...
Free clinics in Maine are seeing an increasingly high demand for care
BY PATTY WIGHT, Maine Public At the Oasis Free Clinic in Brunswick, the rapport between nurse practitioner Bronwyn Sewell and patient Alex Vale is evident. They laugh even as Vale, who uses the pronouns they/them, describes pain they're experiencing. Vale has...
Brunswick free medical, dental clinic to expand
BY JASON CLAFFEY Times Record staff Oasis Free Clinics, which serves about 500 people in the Brunswick area, is doubling the size of its clinic with help of $833,000 in federal funding secured by lawmakers In 1992, Dr. Peter McGuire, recognizing the need for medical...
Brunswick’s Oasis Free Clinics gearing up for bigger facility, more patients
BY MIKAYLA PATEL, THE FORECASTER Renovations are beginning at the new site, which will allow Oasis to serve more uninsured medical and dental patients in the Midcoast. Renovations are underway at Oasis Free Clinics’ new Baribeau Drive facility in Brunswick, which...
Become a Brunswick in Bloom Sponsor
Become a Brunswick in Bloom Sponsor Want to support a great organization while promoting your company’s commitment to our community? Choose your sponsorship level below! Call us at 721-9277 ext. 205 to discuss options. Sponsorship LevelsNumber Available – 9 Be...
Giving Voice: A tribute to volunteers and staff, the heart of Oasis Free Clinics
BY CASEY MANGUM, OUTGOING BOARD PRESIDENT As my term serving as board president for Oasis Free Clinics comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the extraordinary individuals who form the backbone of our organization. It’s these moments of introspection that make...
Giving Voice: Touched by Tragedy
BY ANITA RUFF, OASIS FREE CLINICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR I have dreaded sitting down to write this week’s Giving Voice. My plan was to focus on the community reading of “Rough Sleepers” and how our community is taking care for those who experience homelessness. This book...
Giving Voice: Access to Health Care is Everyone’s Business
BY ANITA RUFF, OASIS FREE CLINICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR In his regular weekly column in The Times Record, “From the Chamber,” my dear friend and colleague Cory King recently wrote about a serious health scare that thankfully was mitigated through early intervention and...
Rudy’s Journey: From the Harbor to Hope
Meet Rudy, a 62-year-old fisherman who has worked for 27 years in Georgetown’s harbor. Rudy’s days spent on the water and in the sun led to a spot developing on his face that he ignored. Like many fishermen, Rudy didn’t have health insurance. Even as the spot grew,...
My summer at Oasis Free Clinics
BY JACK SELIG, Oasis Free Clinics fellow Being from Arkansas, a landlocked state in the South, one might think that Maine is an alien place to me with its picturesque coastline, moose and winters in the negatives rather than a low of 30 degrees. However, since I have...
More than a garden tour
BY ANITA RUFF, Oasis Free Clinics Executive Director Like many days over the past few weeks (months?!), last Saturday morning was humid, damp and misty. A storm had rolled through the Midcoast in the wee hours, and I had been awakened to a downpour accompanied by...
Giving Voice: Your community nonprofits want YOU!
BY KRISTEN KELLNER, OASIS FREE CLINICS BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Midcoast is fortunate to have many nonprofits in our community, providing world class music and theater, offering healthy meals, preventing homelessness, and offering free medical and dental care, just to...
Giving Voice: A birthday wish
BY ANITA RUFF - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OASIS FREE CLINICS Today is my birthday — No. 51. When I was a kid, I tried to picture what I would be like when I was in my 50s. It seemed impossibly old. Even after I had children in my 30s, I would think about their high school...
Giving Voice: Mid Coast and Oasis — A long and special partnership
BY ANITA RUFF, OASIS FREE CLINIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Last week, Lois Skillings stepped down as the President of Mid Coast-Parkview Health after 11 years. When I came to Oasis seven years ago, one of the first calls I received was from Lois, inviting me to meet with...
Giving Voices: The spirit of Brunswick
BY BY ABIGAIL ABBOTT - OASIS FREE CLINICS BOARD OF DIRECTORS I was born in Brunswick, went through the town’s public school system, attended Bowdoin College, and am now raising my three children here. I love this town. Growing up, neighborhood friends of my parents...
Giving Voices: Volunteering an Important Step in Life’s Journey
Life is sometimes explained as a journey. That journey is made by taking a series of steps. Forexample, we talk about taking one step at a time when a part of our journey is hard. We describesome of these steps as small, some big. Sometimes we step forward, sometimes...
Giving Voices: Providing Mental Health Support for Our Community’s Fishermen
This spring, Oasis Free Clinics Executive Director, Anita Ruff, approached me in the doorway ofmy office, saying, “Hey! I have a great opportunity!” Anyone who knows Anita knows the lightin her eyes that accompanies statements such as these. As the Mental Health...
Giving Voices: Volunteering in Retirement
We wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Rick Elsaesser, who is stepping down at the end of the year as our Volunteer Dental Director. Dr. Elsaesser has given thousands of hours to Oasis since he began volunteering in 2004, and we will miss his thoughtfulness, wisdom, and sense of humor.
Oasis Free Clinics to expand, create space for mental health services
$833,000 in federal funds will help Oasis add space for mental health services and additional dental and medical examination rooms. Click here to read the full Portland Press Herald article and learn more about how
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