Vote early, often for Shade Tree clinic in novel grant opportunity
The Shade Tree Family Clinic is working to get out the vote.
The clinic, run by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students, is applying for a grant of up to $50,000 from the Pepsi Co. that allows people to vote for the winner online.
To vote, go to www.refresheverything.com. Voting lasts until the end of July.
The Shade Tree students listed their project as “Expand free health care services to an underserved community” on the website under the health section, in the $50,000 category.
Since the clinic relies on donations to offer care, medications and medical testing to people in East Nashville who are uninsured, it relies heavily on grant opportunities like this one.
The cost to supply the Shade Tree clinic is about $130,000 a year.
“They can vote for our proposal once a day for 30 days. A grant like this would be invaluable for our ability to help the people of Nashville,” said Shade Tree student co-director Ben Deschner, a rising second-year medical student.
“We have terrific volunteer power, but the financial resources are not so easy to come by. We might add that it is especially important for us at this time, because some of our patients lost a lot in the floods,” Deschner said.
If awarded, the grant will go primarily to medications, vaccines, and community outreach programs, as well as a new in-clinic heart monitor (EKG) machine and ultrasound.
The Shade Tree website is www.shadetreeclinic.org. Go to http://tinyurl.com/shadetreegrant to be put on a daily list serve to remind you to vote for the Shade Tree grant proposal.