Families benefit from student services back to school event

MEDICAL LAKE - Medical Lake Student Services hosted a back-to-school event at The Wellness Center, 317 N. Broad St. on Aug. 9 to help offer services to families and students before the school year starts.

The event ran from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. and offered food, fun, and filled family needs at the same time.

School staff were on site making fresh hot dogs for guests, and handing out ice water and popsicles to help folks beat the heat. The local community outreach group was also on site to help people find resources if needed.

There was also a clothing swap available. People could swap, donate, or take pieces of clothing if needed.

According to Nikki Bauman, the Parent/Family Partner with Medical Lake School District, the community showed up and the supporters went the extra mile to offer services.

"Not only have the families showed up," Bauman said. "But our supporters did as well."

She said the Paul Mitchell School of Spokane brought a team of students from Spokane Valley to give haircuts to kids in Medical Lake schools.

According to Bauman the line for that service filled up quickly, but the vendor made space for more.

"They told us they can do more haircuts," Bauman said. "Then they expanded into some more rooms and registered more kids."

"I really love that we have Paul Mitchell students helping our students," she added.

Michael Pendell, Community Events Advisor for Paul Mitchell School of Spokane said his team registered dozens of haircuts for kids during the event.

"I brought 19 people with me today," Pendell said. "And we registered over 60 haircuts."

"A big part of our culture at Paul Mitchell is getting out and getting involved in these community events," he added.

Another highlight of the event was the CHAS mobile clinic being on site to offer sports physicals and helping educate families in navigating medical insurance.

According to Shelby Lambdin, the Health Equity Director for CHAS, it is important for them to bring services out to communities like Medical Lake.

"Our nearest CHAS clinics are in Cheney and downtown Spokane," Lambdin said. "So, with our mobile clinic, our goal is to bridge the space of healthcare services. And expand access to primary care services for residents of the smaller outlying communities."

Lambdin said the medical group works with people regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.

Lambdin said they are starting up Wellness Wednesdays, and CHAS will be bringing the mobile clinic out to Medical Lake twice a month starting mid-September.

"We're going to be here starting Sept. 13," Lambdin said. "Every other Wednesday we will be providing full primary care services to anyone in the community."

Even the City of Medical Lake was represented through the Parks and Rec. Department as Glen Horton, the new director, was onsite to meet with the community.

According to Horton, having a developing partnership between the city and the schools is essential.

Horton said one of the points they are trying to highlight is the idea that some of the volunteer coaches working with youth sports can also learn a lot.

"This can help teach coaches about kids that may be on the autism spectrum," Horton said. "With this partnership, kids with autism can still fully participate and the coaches will have some knowledge in coaching those kids."

Medical Lake Superintendent Kim Headrick said she was ecstatic about the turnout for the event.

"We had such a good turnout in terms of parents and community coming out," Headrick said. "Even better, we had our main supporters really go the extra mile."

"It really speaks to power of the partnerships we have worked to develop," she added.

Partnerships that reach into the entire region. She said having the medical team from CHAS bring a mobile clinic to the site is valuable.

"Parents and families are extremely busy most of the time," Headrick said. "So, with them being willing and able to come to us made it easy for parents to get services without waiting weeks for an appointment."

"It really is incredible to see the way people and organizations come together in support of our kids and families," she concluded.

Author Bio

Matthew Stephens, Reporter

Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.