The Health Wagon: Moving Mountains to Provide Quality Care

This summer St. Mary’s Health Wagon, a nonprofit that provides free healthcare services to the medically underserved residents of the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia, hosted their three-day Move Mountains Medical Mission. They offered people access to free primary and specialized care. They also gave people access to eye exams and glasses fabrication, and dental health services including fillings, extractions and oral cancer screenings. With support from the CDC Foundation, they provided information on COVID-19 and flu vaccines. Medical staff were on site to administer vaccines to community members, and people were encouraged to bring their dogs for free rabies vaccines from a local veterinarian too!

After 21 years of hosting this event, the Health Wagon has treated more than 100,000 people at no cost to them, an incredible achievement of community care.