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-We are so lucky
because we have such a dedicated group of volunteers who come in.
-[Laughs]
-We only have four staff members
who work year round on the clinic,
and so with the operation of this magnitude,
without volunteers, we couldn't operate.
About a dozen people volunteer with us year round.
-Scrub brushes, long handle.
-Volunteers also staff supply sorting or to dispense
all of the eyeglasses.
-Welcome to Seattle/King County Clinic.
-And then, of course, we've got clinic week.
-I'm checking in for the first day.
-For the first day, in line right there.
You'll get your badge and you'll get your meal voucher.
-Volunteers. -Volunteers, super.
-Line one is open, so you can go to this.
-Thank you.
-So during that week we have as many volunteers
as we have patients.
-Over the course of the clinic,
that amounts to sometimes 3,000, 4,000 volunteers.
-Perfect. -Thank you.
-Volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
-I'm an X-ray tech by training.
-I am a retired clinical professor of medicine.
-I'm an accountant for Boeing. [ Laughs ]
-I have no medical or dental skills at all.
I mean, I have my basic first aid card, my CPR card,
but that's about it.
-I don't know anything medical.
I do not have a health care background,
but everybody's got something they can contribute.
-I call myself basically the official problem solver.
-We are accounting for the patient's information.
It has to be accurate, it has to be precise.
-I hope to bring my voice,
not only my Spanish-speaking voice,
but also my cultural competence
when I help a Spanish-speaking families.
-We've had CEOs, elected officials and celebrities.
You never know who you're going to be working with.
-I volunteer, and I always was in the intake
because I always wanted to be able to look people in the eye
and tell them that they not only deserve this,
but we were grateful to give it to them.
-It was nothing short of wonderful to see
a lot of familiar faces,
a lot of new faces coming together
to do exactly what this clinic is for.
♪♪
There was feedback and stories about their experience here,
some for the first time,
some this is their eighth year coming back.
In our first year of the clinic,
Bertha volunteered with us
and she wanted to stay past the closure time.
Well, in the middle of the night there was a huge windstorm.
It knocked out all the power,
and Bertha had still been working.
And so when the emergency generators came on,
I got a call from the facility, people saying Bertha is here
and she wants the passcode to get back into the computers
to continue her work.
The next year, she said,
"What area is the most important to you?
And that's where I want to be."
-We had a patient come up, and he had almost every tooth
pulled that year, and he came up to us.
He came up to every person that had on a volunteer shirt
and couldn't thank us enough.
You know, he had been in such pain for so long,
and even though he didn't have a tooth left in his mouth,
he was grateful.
I mean, that's the paycheck right there.
That is the paycheck, is when you see
that you've made a just a huge effect on people's lives.
-There are definitely people in our community
who are drawn to volunteer work.
They want to know that they are giving back,
that they're supporting people in need,
that they're supporting something
that's going to uplift the community in general.
-Why do I do this?
You know, I hope for the day somehow,
somewhere, that we don't need free clinics, right?
That's my hope.
But until then, we need to care for people
and this is a way to give back.
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-Watch CityStream Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channel,
or find us anytime online at SeattleChannel.org.
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