AOPA Pilot: The Voice of General Aviation
September 2009
By Alyssa J. Miller
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Photo by: Inez Pruitt
At White Stone Family Practice: (from left) Brian Delawder, Exec. VP, Southern Builders, Inc. (SBI); Steve Hentschel, General Manager, SBI; Don Smith, Chief Estimator, SBI; David Jones, Connemara Construction; Teresa Butch, Office Manager, Connemara Construction; David Annis, Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission; Jimmie Carter, Chairman, TIHF; Robert Nelson, President, EDA Engineering Design Associates; Dr. David Nichols. (Photo by: Inez Pruitt)
Tangier clinic bid opening with (from left) Dr. David Nichols and TIHF Board Chairman, Jimmie Carter. (Photo by: Richard Crumbacker, Crisfield Times)
Drill rig arrives at clinic building site; engineers bore holes and take soil samples for testing. Test results will determine the type of foundation to be laid for the new clinic.
Tangier Island Health Foundation board members break ground for new Tangier Island clinic (from left): Jimmie Carter; Dr. David Nichols; island resident and PA, Inez Pruitt; E. Carlton ("Buddy") Wilton, Jr.; B.H.B. Hubbard; Captain Lonnie Moore, also a Tangier resident. (Photo: Ken Touchton)
Tangier Island may be just a tiny sliver of land in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, but people throughout Virginia and beyond care deeply about the health needs of its people.
That simple fact was demonstrated again and again on October 4th when the Tangier Island Health Foundation held its groundbreaking to mark the impending construction of a modern health clinic to serve the island’s 600 residents.
“How we got here today was because of people responding,” said Foundation Chairman James N. Carter, Jr., who spearheaded the project after touring the current facility in November, 2005. “It’s amazing how many friends you all have.”
Public institutions, foundations and private individuals have shown their support through donations, grants, and pledges that will meet the $1.2 million estimated cost for construction and equipment. The new facility will replace a 50-year-old structure that’s cramped, ill-equipped and in serious disrepair.
When construction is completed next year, islanders will have a vastly modernized clinic that will be able to handle far more of the islanders’ medical problems, enabling those who are sick to avoid costly trips to the mainland for care. The commute can even be dangerous when inclement weather creates rough seas, and can be particularly taxing on the elderly and those with serious illnesses.
Dr. David Nichols, named “Country Doctor of the Year” in a national competition in 2006, has provided medical care in the outdated facility for 29 years, commuting weekly by boat, plane or helicopter. In the early days it was sometimes so cold in the clinic that you could see your breath, he recounted. “But no one complained.”
When Carter first toured the clinic in 2005, it was an eye-opening experience for Dr. Nichols as well. Carter “made me realize I had become so focused on the patients here that I had become oblivious to the conditions,” Dr. Nichols said. He soon realized that a better future was within reach. “We knew we had a compelling story.”
Dr. Nichols made his comments on a brilliantly sunny Saturday on Tangier. He stood within the spray-painted footprint of the new clinic, with the Tangier water tower as a backdrop. What began as a small event with just a handful of key supporters (and the promise of a much larger celebration when the clinic opens next fall) grew into an island happening. Nearly 200 townspeople attended, with town leaders organizing and hosting a pot-luck lunch for all— complete with live music—after the ceremony.
“Isolated the way we are, this new clinic is very much needed,” said Tangier Mayor James Eskridge, a resident waterman with deep family ties to the island. “We have had a lot of people working on this for a long time—people who don’t even live here, but they care about the community.”
State and federal grants have been supplemented by generous donations from foundations, civic clubs, churches, and individuals. Checks presented at the groundbreaking ranged from $760 raised by a church bake sale, to $12,000 worth of new medical equipment from regional Rotary clubs, to a $50,000 donation from Julien and Terri Patterson, residents of the Washington, D.C. area who have a vacation home in nearby Irvington, Virginia.
Some of the key professionals who have donated their time and expertise to the project from its inception were also recognized, including:
Health care on Tangier took another leap forward last year, when Tangier native Inez Pruitt became the island’s first full-time medical professional. Pruitt, who started helping with filing at the clinic after dropping out of high school to marry, eventually earned her GED and, with encouragement from her clinic colleagues, returned to school in 2001 and completed her studies to become a physician’s assistant.
“This is my island, my home, my paradise,” said Pruitt, who was introduced by Dr. Nichols as “the future of Tangier health care.” “I am grateful for [the clinic] we have,” she said. “But I can’t tell you how much more grateful I am that we are getting a new facility.”
As the ceremony wound down, Carter asked everyone “to come up and turn a little piece of dirt.”
“This belongs to all of us,” he said.
From left: Jimmie Carter, Dr. Nichols, Terri Patterson, Julien Patterson. (Photo by Ken Touchton)
At the October 4th groundbreaking for the new Tangier Island Health Center, Julien and Terri Patterson presented a check for $50,000 to Tangier Island Health Foundation Chairman Jimmie Carter and Dr. David Nichols. The Pattersons are residents of Oakton and Irvington, Virginia and have been following fundraising progress for the new facility from its inception in early 2007. "With this gift,” Patterson said, “ Terri and I wanted to make a significant contribution that will kick off the next stage of fundraising for this important project, enabling the Foundation to maintain the building and its equipment for years to come.”
In March the Session of the Campbell Memorial Presbyterian Church in Weems, Virginia, agreed to pledge $25,000 for construction of a modern health clinic for Tangier Island, payable upon the start of construction. In announcing this generous grant, church Elder Richard A. Scott said, “We admire the efforts you have made in serving the people of Tangier Island and pray for the successful completion of the new clinic.”
On May 18th, Tangier Island Health Foundation Chairman Jimmie Carter and board member Dr. David Nichols were invited to present plans for the new clinic to the members of the church during their Mission Sunday service, and at lunch following the service. Addressing the congregation Jimmie Carter said, “On behalf of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, I want to thank you all for this amazing gift. This project is so important to the people of Tangier Island who are as grateful as we are for this gift and the community support that it expresses.”
In the photo, from left: The Reverend Clay Macaulay, Pastor; Tangier residents Jerry Pruitt and Physician’s Assistant Inez Pruitt; Dr. David Nichols; church member Suzi Bowman; Foundation Chairman Jimmie Carter; and Project Director Tina Hagen.
With the demolition in May of the old house occupying the site of their modern health facility, islanders celebrated its reality with photos like this one taken by clinic receptionist Cindy Parks.
A $25,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has enabled the Tangier Island Health Foundation to complete fundraising for its first goal: purchase of the land on which a modern health clinic will be built for the residents of this remote island community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Tangier is Virginia’s only island community and a national treasure,” says James N. Carter, Jr. "It is so isolated that its 600 residents still speak an Elizabethan dialect dating back to the island’s colonization in the 1600s." But the remoteness of this waterman community causes serious problems when it comes to accessing quality medical care.” Carter established the foundation last year after discovering the appalling condition of the existing clinic during a visit with Dr. David Nichols, who has piloted his own aircraft to the island every Thursday for the past 28 years to provide residents their only consistent primary health care.
The Foundation aims to build and equip an attractive, state-of-the-art facility that adheres to the island’s architectural heritage, providing a range of primary care, emergency services, and wellness and prevention programs. It will replace the existing clinic—a crumbling fifty-year-old bungalow with outdated equipment. The new clinic will also function as a base to attract additional medical providers, thus broadening the scope of medical services offered on the island.
A non-profit, community-based organization, the Tangier Island Health Foundation is committed to improving access to primary and preventive health care for Tangier‘s population. The venture is a public-private partnership, with the goal of raising $1.25 million to provide the quality of health care that this underserved population both needs and deserves.
Last year the Virginia General Assembly validated the project’s importance with a $300,000 matching grant presented to the islanders during a visit by Governor Timothy M. Kaine. Governor Kaine has since included an additional grant proposal of $200,000 for the project in his 2008-10 budget. The balance of the clinic’s funding will come from private foundations such as Kellogg, and caring individuals.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development.
Growing up on a vanishing wisp of land in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay has its advantages.
"Get up in the morning, go out, rove the seashores or go out in a boat," said retired schoolteacher Bruce Gordy, 66, recalling his childhood on Tangier Island. "Look for Indian arrowheads. Play ball all day. Go swimming. Just a natural playground."
- Richmond Times-Dispatch
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McGuireWoods Consulting Helps
Tangier Island Receive Grant for New Health Care Clinic
RICHMOND, VA – Gov. Tim Kaine and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner traveled to Tangier Island on Friday, June 8, 2007 to announce a $300,000 matching fund grant for a new health clinic to be built on this remote island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.
The announcement took place at the Tangier Combined School and was attended by Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Bob Bloxom, Sen. John Chichester, Del. Lynwood Lewis, Del. Rob Whitman and Supervisor Ron Wolff, Accomack Board of Supervisors. The event launched a public/private partnership aimed at bringing modern medicine to Tangier.
The new clinic, to be built with funds raised by the non-profit-organization, Tangier Island Health Foundation, will replace a crumbling, 50-year-old building with several structural problems and obsolete equipment. For 50 years this has been the only medical facility to serve Tangier’s 650 residents. Jimmie Carter, Founder and Chairman of the Tangier Island Health Foundation, estimates that building and outfitting the new clinic will cost approximately $1,250,000.
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Dr. David B. Nichols has been flying to Virginia's Tangier Island once a week for 28 years to care for the 600+ isolated residents. After being nominated for his efforts by a local resident, Dr. Nichols was named Country Doctor of the Year for 2006. This is a national award sponsored by Staff Care, a physician staffing firm. Dr. Nichols was selected as ABC News Person of the Week for the week of January 19, 2007.
House Joint Resolution No. 760 and Senate Joint Resolution 426
Sponsored by Virginia Delegates Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. from the 100th District and Robert J. Wittman from the 99th District and Virginia Senator Nick Rerras from District 6, a joint resolution was introduced commending Dr. David B. Nichols for his contributions to Lancaster County, Tangier Island and the Commonwealth.
In the summer of 1608 Captain John Smith began his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay. From Cape Charles he traveled up the bay to the Potomac River, continued as far as present-day Washington D. C., and then back down to Jamestown, Virginia. At one point he was very badly hurt by a stingray and had to return to Jamestown to be treated. It was during these two voyages, while looking for fresh water, that he came across a group of islands in the middle of the bay. He named them the "Russell Isles," for a Doctor Russell who was then on board ship with him. This group of islands is known today as Smith, Tangier, and Watts Islands.
Tangier Island is about 6 miles below the Maryland-Virginia State line. In Virginia state records, all the islands below the state line were once known as the "Tangier Islands."
For more information: Tangier Island Guide
Country Doctor of the YearSM award, sponsored by Staff Care®, recognizes their continuing contribution to rural healthcare.
The award is presented to a physician who best exemplifies the spirit, skill, and dedication of America's rural medical practitioners. Anyone with knowledge of an extraordinary physician may submit a nomination.
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