Florida Catholic | Mobile Medical

Donation fuels mobile medical clinic

JAMIE PILARCZYK | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 11.02.07

JAMIE PILARCZYK | FC
Lenda and Vincent Naimoli, pictured in front of the mobile medical vehicle, donated more than $100,000 to Catholic Mobile Medical Services in honor of Vincent’s late brother, Raymond Naimoli.

DOVER | Leo Saldana, 17, was playing soccer two weeks ago when he tripped and fell, fracturing his wrist. Not sure what he should do without health insurance, Leo went to Sister Sara Proctor, Catholic Mobile Medical Services program coordinator, looking for help.

Sister Proctor’s mobile medical program, a service of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, also operates a stationary clinic at San Jose Mission, where Leo lives with his mother. Through volunteer medical professionals, Sister Proctor provides free-of-charge health education and social services on her 1994 Blue Bird bus to the rural poor in eastern and southern Hillsborough County, many of whom are migrant workers and their families.

Sister Proctor took Leo to a walk-in clinic where she paid for his X-rays, then referred him to Shriners Hospital in Tampa, where the bones in his left wrist were set and where he will receive follow-up care for free.

Leo’s treatment was possible, Sister Proctor said, because of donations like that of Vincent Naimoli, founding owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and his wife, Lenda, who recently gave more than $100,000 to the mobile medical program to be used over the course of five years.

“This impacts more people directly and people who don’t have the ability or the access,” said Naimoli, a member of St. Mary Parish in Tampa. “You feel so bad for these people. ... I wanted to try to help somehow.”

The strangers met Oct. 20 at the rededication ceremony of the mobile medical bus. Adelfa Saldana, Leo’s mother, who doesn’t speak much English, took Lenda Naimoli’s hand and with tears in her eyes said, “Thank you.”

Among other things, the Naimolis’ donation paid for repainting the bus and will cover the costs of medications, medical supplies, fuel, maintenance and repair until the year 2011.

“This is a revelation out here,” said Vincent Naimoli on a tour of the stationary clinic.

He made the donation in honor of his late brother, Raymond Naimoli, who died in 1999. The two graduated from the University of Notre Dame and were influenced by its president emeritus, Father Theodore Hesburgh, to live a life of charity. A member of the Notre Dame Club of Greater Tampa Bay, Vincent Naimoli has also worked to open a relationship with the club and Catholic Mobile Medical Services, providing volunteer physicians, donations and even a new roof for the previously leaky stationary clinic, donated by alumnus Ed McGuinness.

“You’ve opted into something Spirit-led,” Sister Proctor said to the Naimolis. “I run to keep up with the Spirit.”

For Guadalupe Lamas, volunteer nursing director and the program’s volunteer of the year, having funding means she can continue to do her job.

“Prior to CMMS, medical services for farmworkers were nonexistent. I felt so useless before with lack of money, access and resources,” said Lamas. With the arrival of the program in 2000, “people at the mission know they have us. To me it’s heartwarming. It’s like having a doctor in your pocket.”

Along with basic medical services, the mobile medical bus provides women and girls with help from Pregnancy Plus Medical and Support Services, addressing the needs surrounding pregnancy, sexuality and parenting.

About 1,400 patients were served in 2006. Sister Proctor estimated that number to increase by 10 percent by the end of 2007. Clinicians might have 10 patients a day walk through the bus’ door, or they might see two during regular visits to San Jose and Beth-El Missions in Wimauma, Good Samaritan Mission in Balm and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wimauma.

A registered nurse practitioner, bus driver, and jack-of-all-trades, Sister Proctor keeps the program running, coordinating physicians, volunteers and processing patients. She inspects the paint job after driving the bus around to make sure it is still nick-free and loves the labels on the back, courtesy of the Naimolis, proudly announcing the mission of the bus for all those stuck in traffic behind her to read.

For Sister Proctor, donations such as the Naimolis’ are donations to the heart of her work: serving the health needs of the impoverished.

More simply, she said, “It keeps us on the road.”

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Donation fuels mobile medical clinic

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