Coover Foundation Grant Story

Coover Foundation Grant Story

Ozarks Education Published Thursday, February 9, 2006

Linda Leicht News-Leader

Fordland clinic gets $27,575 boost

Grant from Coover Foundation will help fund improved dental care.

FORDLAND — The dental chairs at the Fordland Medical Clinic sit idle, but a new grant will go a long way to filling them. The clinic was among six agencies to receive an annual Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Regional grant this week at Commerce Trust Co.

Joan Twiton, manager of the rural health clinic, said the $27,575 will furnish a third dental examination room at the clinic and help to pay a part-time dentist for a program that could begin later this year.

The Fordland Medical Clinic was opened in 1996 by nurse practitioner Robert Marsh. The goal of the federally certified rural health clinic is to provide medical, mental and dental care to people around rural Webster County. Nurse practitioners and nurses work with the patients, with a physician on call.

At the Fordland clinic, fees are charged on a sliding scale, making care available to patients on Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance or private pay, Twiton said.

The dental services will focus on children. Dental care for children has been identified as an area of particular need in several recent surveys of children's issues in southwest Missouri. Making Kids Count found that half of children don't get annual checkups.

With federal grant money, the Coover grant and a possible four-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health's Smiles Across Greater Missouri, the clinic will work with local schools and agencies to offer a program called Cavity Busters.

According to the Center for Disease Control, poor children are nearly 12 times more likely to miss school and other activities because of dental-related illness than children from higher-income families, said Twiton. In Webster County, 21 percent of the children live in poverty, compared with 15.3 percent statewide.

Marsh said he is aware of a dental prevention program for children that, over a period of only three years, lowered the rate of cavities in Head Start children from nearly 90 percent to less than 20 percent. "I place a strong emphasis on prevention," said Marsh. "Prevention makes almost 100 percent of the difference between good teeth and poor teeth."

Cavity Busters will target first-, fifth- and ninth-graders over four years, providing access to sealants — a plastic material applied to teeth to prevent cavities — and preventative dental education through a mobile dental unit. The sealants and education are expected to improve overall dental health, resulting in fewer cavities, Twiton said.

FAMILY CARE

Holly Akers of Fordland was in the clinic Tuesday with all four of her children, ranging in age from 1 to 7. Sore throats, swollen glands and ear aches brought the family there. Besides the convenience of having a doctor nearby, Akers said it is the good care that has kept her and her family as patients for the past year. "Everybody is really nice," she said. "They really take my kids and their well-being to heart."

When Jean Smith, a nurse practitioner, came into the examining room, Ashlie, 7, had only one concern.

"Am I going to get a shot?" she asked.

Smith grinned, avoiding an answer until she could examine the slender, blonde girl. She asked her about school as she looked in her ears.

"Are you eating OK, Ashlie?" Smith asked before turning to her mother for more information. They talked about Ashlie's appetite, her snoring, the fact that she wakes up tired in the morning. Ashlie will need a throat culture, she said. "OK, let me see someone else," she called out after finishing up with Ashlie.

Three-year-old Caleb grinned, ready for his exam. But first, Smith looks at his "Blue's Clues" book with him before she listens to his heart and checks his swollen glands. "You look like a chipmunk, Caleb," she joked as the little boy proudly displayed the large bulges on either side of his neck.

Taking four sick kids to the doctor can be overwhelming and expensive, Akers said, but the Fordland clinic is a place they all enjoy visiting. Soon, she looks forward to taking them to the dental clinic.

OTHERS RECEIVE GRANTS

Twiton accepted the grant money during a ceremony Tuesday.

"We're finally on the way," she said about the result of the grant.

Also receiving grants were the Barry-Lawrence Advocates Standing Together, Children's Haven of Southwest Missouri, the Community Alliance for Compassionate Care at the End of Life, Missouri State University and Ozarks Food Harvest.

The $29,987 to the Barry-Lawrence counties group will go toward refurbishing a five-unit apartment complex for single parents.

"This will turn our dream of housing for single parents into reality," said Kathleen Siegenthaller, program director for Wellspring of Life, Center for Families. "They will break the cycle of poverty and abuse."

The $30,000 grant to Ozarks Food Harvest will help to purchase freezers and other storage for a new warehouse to meet the growing needs of the 31 counties served by the Springfield-based food bank. The agency expects to start construction on a warehouse by 2007, with completion anticipated by 2009, said Bart Brown, executive director.

Children's Haven received $31,380 for its program of providing housing for children whose families are in crisis. Wendy Wright, president of the board of directors, said the agency can house 12 children for as long as 30 days.

The Community Alliance received $15,610 to help fund its education program for nursing assistants on end-of-life care.

Lloyd Young accepted the $15,610 grant for Missouri State University's leadership training program. The program, he said, will provide development for "people who are thrust into leadership positions or would like to get involved in leadership." The six agencies receiving a total of $150,000 in grants were only a fraction of the $1.8 million in grant applications received, said Robin Robeson with Commerce Trust, who also served on the selection committee.

"It was very difficult to nail it down to six," Robeson said.

Coover Grants

Dorothy Coover, a longtime employee of Commerce Trust Co., established a charitable foundation in 1992 in memory of her husband, Louis. She personally selected the recipients until her death at age 92 in 2000.

The Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation Grantmaking Program has made $150,000 available through Commerce Trust each year to projects that improve the quality of life of people in the Ozarks.

In 2003, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks joined Commerce to invest and distribute the funds.

To learn more about the Coover grants, contact the Community Foundation of the Ozarks at 417-864-6199.