Health care center moves from trailer to new offices
Facility's directors call upgrade significant milestone
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer
Moving day can be fraught with problems, but when it takes you to the place where you have always wanted to be, it is a little bit like heaven.

And so it is with the Paul McGuire Family Health Care Center of Freehold Borough.

What started out as a vision has become a reality.

The health care center, which has been housed in a trailer behind the New Beginnings Agape Christian Center on Throckmorton Street since it opened in 2005, has moved to a 1,500-square-foot space in the Boro Plaza shopping center on Broad Street, Freehold Borough.

The health care center has been in operation since January 2005 with support from the I Beseech Thee Community Development Corporation, a faithbased nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide community services to people in need and to help them improve their lives.

This week's move to Boro Plaza was made possible through the help of some generous benefactors, according to the Rev. Ricky Pierce, the corporation's executive director.

Pierce said that with the help of a $50,000 grant from Horizon Foundation for New Jersey's five-year, $5 million Health Care Center Initiative, and generous donations from the Mary Owen Borden Foundation, United Way and the American Medical Association, the health care center was able to make the move to larger quarters.

Volunteers moved the health care center's equipment and supplies to the new offices on Oct. 20 and were expecting to welcome patients on Oct. 23.

"We are very excited about this," Pierce said, adding that the move is the realization of a dream, one that will provide residents in need with free health care.

At the new location, the freshly painted white walls, softened by gray and white floor tiles, along with new stainless steels sinks housed in white wooden cabinetry with granite tops are a far cry from the furnishings in the trailer.

The new facility has four examination rooms (an increase from two exam rooms in the trailer), two offices, a waiting room, a reception area and a foyer.

The health care center's professionals will conduct physicals, health maintenance, treatment of minor illnesses and health education/prevention in addition to offering blood pressure screenings and children's immunizations. The health care center is open to anyone who wishes to seek assistance.

Patients generally come from Freehold Borough, Freehold Township and Lakewood, according to program director Joyce Jenkins.

Jenkins thanked CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, for performing patient laboratory tests and the Visiting Nurses Association for arranging patient mammography and pap smear tests.

Jenkins, who is a nurse practitioner, has been involved in the health care center since the beginning. She said the move to Boro Plaza is a "monumental step in providing more and better services for the community."

The health care center is open to patients every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-9 p.m. and is staffed by a team of more than 20 volunteers including Jenkins; internists Dr. Joseph Minieri and Dr. Gus Wreiole; pediatricians Dr. Margaret Fisher and Dr Richard De Groote; gynecologist Dr. Robert Massa; and podiatrist Dr. Robert Fahoury.

The only paid member of the staff is the medical director, Dr. Lookman Obejobi, a physician who is on staff at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune.

In addition to Jenkins, also on the volunteer list are nurse practitioners Grace Ann Barrett and Martha Mulvey. Nurses Sue Romano, Barbara Hudson, Diane Stanaway, Mary Bergen, Jackie Whitehurst, Debbie Cingari and Kimberly Wright are also regular volunteers at the health care center.

Maxine Roache is a medical assistant and Evangeline Tu, Ashley Toms and Mona Pappas act as translators for patients who need an interpreter.

According to Jenkins, in addition to medical care, the health care center also provides pediatric and gynecological services on an alternating basis, usually on Monday or Wednesday.

Jenkins said dental services to be provided by Dr. George Larkin are on the horizon for the spring of 2008. The services of a chiropractor, Dr. Neil Kosin, are also expected to be available soon.

The goal of the center's directors is to have the facility open for more hours and more days, according to Pierce. He said that may be possible in the new offices.

"We just need more volunteers to help staff it," Pierce said.

Elder Clarence Cyrus, who has served as the health care center's project director and has overseen the center's creation every step of the way, said that getting the clinic to this point has been a "long haul."

"We are going to be able to help more people now," Cyrus said. "It's been a long time coming."

Pierce summed up the sentiments of many of the people who were involved in the creation of the health care center when he said, "When you take something small, it can mushroom and here we are. We are going to be a blessing to the community."