Wellness center: Success after setbacks

Ocala Star-Banner (FL)

March 12--Carolyn Adams sat last week in the middle of the double-wide manufactured home on Northwest Seventh Street without a stick of furniture other than her two folding chairs. But she could not be happier.

The 48-by-68-foot building is the culmination of nearly 10 years of effort to create the Estella Byrd Whitman Wellness and Community Resource Center. Named after Adams' grandmother, the clinic is designed to serve the under-served in west Ocala.

The center may not seem like much to many, but the structure, landscaped parking area and lawn are milestones built upon a series of emotional and financial setbacks that threatened the project time and again.

Located at 819 NW Seventh St., the wellness center is scheduled to open March 20 and operate 3-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Beginning April 23, it will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

"This is the wall where we'll hang up pictures of those who donated to us," Adams said, pointing to a blank wall. The wellness center has three examination rooms, a bathroom, reception area and staff conference room.

"The pieces are coming together," she said. "We're going to focus on (obesity), hypertension, diabetes, bone diseases (such as arthritis)."

Adams will also focus during the next year on zoning issues to allow the wellness center to treat patients on site rather than send them to the Deliverance Outreach Ministry, 821 NE 36th Terrace -- almost five miles away. City zoning currently does not allow for patient treatment at the wellness center, but it allows for medical staff to offer educational workshops and seminars.

Adams said zoning also allows enough leeway to get area residents into the facility and, from there, usher them into treatment at Deliverance Outreach Ministry.

Local doctors' offices will donate furniture. Adams and her late husband, Arthur, donated much of the land. Her grandmother once lived on the site, and Adams grew up there. Adams is a retired advanced registered nurse practitioner.

Last week, Adams sat in the modular building and recounted the struggles to get the project to where it is now.

She and her husband announced in 2009 in a Governor's West Ocala Neighborhood Revitalization Council meeting their intent to build the center. They met with local healthcare and city officials and hospital executives, who supported the idea and agreed there was a need. But no one pulled out their checkbooks, she recalled.

"Then our first delay was sitting down and writing a business plan. It was a lot more complicated than we thought," she said.

"We also wanted someone to see the vision the way we saw it and write us a check," she said, smiling. "But that didn't happen. Nothing happened."

The couple wrote up a needs assessment and took it to local churches and other community groups. They got moral support but not much else.

"Remember, a lot of people in this area are struggling just to eat, feed and clothe their children," Adams said.

On May 10, 2010, the couple registered the project as a 501(c)(3), giving it federal recognition as a charitable organization, thus allowing donations in exchange for federal tax breaks.

"But," she added, "that same day I got a call from the doctor telling me I had breast cancer."

Treating the illness took the couple away from the project for the next nine months.

In 2012, officials from SummerGlen's golf and retirement community told the couple they would donate a triple-wide trailer for the project.

A year later, Arthur died of a heart attack.

In 2014, the project got its first substantial donation of $15,000 from a private donor. Then came a city revitalization grant for another $15,000.

Then, within a year, the city found mold infesting the building and determined it could not be converted to examination rooms and offices.

"I got one of those 'We are sorry to inform you' letters from the city," Adams said. "That's how I found out."

"That's when I thought about possibly giving up, but I had so many people behind me saying that Art would never have given up. But that was my lowest point."

Then came Langley Health Services, which is based in Sumterville but has an office in Ocala. Langley offered to help Adams qualify for federal funding and be able to accept Medicare and Medicaid payments. It seemed promising, some good news after the powerful ups and downs.

She and Langley tried, but she didn't qualify.

"That was also a low point," she said.

But right about that time, Marion County Health Alliance Executive Director Patrick Gillman stepped in and offered to help with fundraising and paperwork to start a clinic.

That's also when Jerry Lourenco, owner of Friends Recycling, donated enough money to lease a new modular building for 18 months. The City of Ocala kicked in more money so Adams could lease it another six months. The city had already prepped the site for utilities, and Zorrn Co. Inc. prepped the land to make it suitable for a building and parking.

Adams is also looking to see if it's feasible to buy the building. Either way, Lourenco said he would help financially. The cost to lease the modular is about $1,200 per month.

Langley will also bring its mobile dental and medical vehicle to the wellness center site.

"It's just such a good project, I wanted to help out," Lourenco said.

"The problem is that if you don't have a building on site, (potential donors) get tired of looking at just dirt," he said. "So I wanted to help them along. They were passionate about what they wanted to do."

"Now people in the community will have access to a medical facility," he said.

Dr. Pamela Lewin will oversee the wellness center's day-to-day operation.

"It's going to be a resource in the neighborhood where they can actually come," she said.

Lewin will be able to see patients at the center but will send them to Deliverance Outreach Ministry to treat them. She hopes that in a year or two she will be able to get zoning changes and expand the wellness center's services to include on-site treatment. The long-term goal is to become a federally qualified clinic and be able to accept Medicare and Medicaid payments.

But for now, the facility will serve primarily as an educational facility and entryway for medical treatment. Staff will also help people apply for health insurance and food assistance.

Lewin has worked with Adams on the project almost from the inception.

She said they never would have given up.

There's still work to do with getting volunteer staff and furniture ready, she said, "but now we can taste it."

"It's so close we know we can do it," Lewin said. "We're going to honor our promise and over-deliver."

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