What’s New at Oasis
What’s Happening at Oasis
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
Giving Voice: Growing a beautiful community
What a beautiful community we are fortunate to live in — the Midcoast region of Maine! On July 16, I had the opportunity to see it up close and personal at Brunswick in Bloom, the garden tour fundraiser for Oasis Free Clinics. The weather did not disappoint. It was...
Federal funds secured to expand free dental services at Oasis Free Clinics
$833,000 has beens secured for Oasis Free Clinics in the draft Fiscal Year 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill. Click here to read the full Portland Press Herald article and learn more about how this bill will allow Oasis to serve...
Giving Voice: Rethinking mental health services at Oasis Free Clinics
We have the best patients at Oasis Free Clinics. I have written that sentence often in this column, and I have uttered those words many times since becoming Oasis’ executive director six years ago. They are funny, kind, interesting, and thoughtful. They come to Oasis...
Giving Voice: What It Means To Be a Neighbor
I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a good neighbor. I moved to Brunswick from Bath almost two years ago and found a home in a lovely neighborhood. It is close to my job at the Oasis Free Clinics, walkable to downtown, and has a nice yard. What...
Brunswick in Bloom Garden Tour
On Saturday, July 16th (rain date: Sunday, July 17th) from 12:00 - 4:00pm, homeowners are welcoming visitors to their private gardens to raise money for our free medical and dental services. Tickets are $35 in advance. From lush...
Giving Voice: What’s changed at Brunswick’s free clinics in 2 years? A lot.
At the end of February 2020, our clinical director left Oasis for new opportunities. Two weeks after her departure, the global pandemic arrived, and everything changed. The first few days of the pandemic were filled with confusion...
“Chefs whip up funds for health care for the uninsured”
"Brunswick's Oasis Free Clinics is offering virtual cooking classes from some of Maine's top culinary minds. Proceeds will help the nonprofit provide free health and dental services to the uninsured." "A healthy diet might keep the doctor away, but a local nonprofit...
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