A Weekend for all of our Busy Bees!

Spring is around the corner, and we hope you will be a “Busy Bees” for Alliance!  Join us Friday, March 21 anytime from 5-7 pm for a Busy Bee Social as we kick-off the Alliance Busy Bees Volunteer Club.  Then buzz over to Alliance Saturday morning, March 22 to help launch the Community Garden.  Calling all of our “Busy Bees!”

“CELEBRATE SPRING!” @ Alliance Medical Ministry 

Friday, March 21, 5-7 pm: “Busy Bees” Social Alliance “Busy Bees” @ The Busy Bee, 225 South Wilmington Street, Raleigh, NC. Let’s toast Alliance Volunteers, past, present and future, with the launch of our new Volunteer Club, the “Busy Bees!” Learn how you can volunteer at Alliance. RSVP to edaniel@alliancemedicalministry.org.

Saturday, March 22, 9-11:30 am:  Garden Launch & Dedication Come join the “Busy Bees” as we bless our seeds, plant our vegetables, and dedicate our garden. This will be a fun morning for Busy Bees of all ages.  Bring your friends and family and install our spring plants. To volunteer, contact us at garden@alliancemedicalministry.org.

On-going Garden Work Days:  “Busy Bees” in the Community Garden Once a month we will have standing garden workdays throughout the year to harvest, plant, and nurture the garden that works hard year round to nurture our patients.  Make plans to join us on any of the following days: April 26, May 17, June 28, July 26, August 23, September 27, October 25, and November 22.  Come dig with us!  Contact our Garden Coordinator (garden@alliancemedicalministry.org) to learn more.

Alliance Medical Ministry continues to be grateful for your support of our mission.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Elizabeth Daniel Director of Community Outreach edaniel@alliancemedicalministry.org

Alliance Salutes our Boy Scouts!

Alliance Medical Ministry wants to thank our local Boy Scout troops for collaborating with us to improve our garden!  The Boy Scouts are one of our many partners without whom our garden would not be able to flourish!  The Boy Scouts have worked on projects like the construction of wooden benches that were recently installed in the garden.  This project was led by Ryan MacRae.  The benches are a wonderful addition to the community garden and will be great help in future garden activities. Adam Huggins with Troop 395 is leading another Boy Scout project that will convert 4 of our garden rows into raised beds.  This will improve the yield of our garden and increase accessibility to the garden for those with physical limitations.  Thank you Boy Scouts for helping our garden grow!

Can you Dig it? Growing Nutritional Tools one Squash at a Time!

Here at Alliance Medical Ministry, our community garden is buzzing with the “busy bees” that grow fresh, healthy produce for our patients.  The community garden plays an essential role in our mission to provide medical care to the uninsured working adults of Wake County.  The garden allows us to highlight the importance of healthy eating in a very real way to our patients who see the garden and receive its bounty on a regular basis.  By incorporating produce from our garden into the patients’ clinical experience through “produce prescriptions” and in our wellness programs, patients are able to see the impact nutrition plays on their overall health and are empowered to improve their nutritional well being. Alliance is starting the year off by participating as a host site for the “Dig In” volunteer workday for AHA’s (Advocates for Health in Action) “Dig In” Conference on March 8^th.  After the conference participants can come to Alliance to gets hands on experience in our community garden.

On March 15^th Crossroads Fellowship is coming to Alliance for a workday to begin planting for the spring.

Everyone is invited on March 22^nd to our Spring Garden Kick-off and Open House.  We’ll be having a garden workday from 9:30-11:30 and finish with a garden blessing in hopes that our harvest will be a bountiful one for our patients!  This is a great chance to come see what Alliance is about and help us start the year off strong.

We will have additional garden workdays throughout the year to harvest, plant, and nurture the garden that works hard year round to nurture our patients.  Make plans to join us on any of the following days:

April 26 May 17 June 28 July 26 August 23 September 27 October 25 November 22

Come dig with us!  Contact our Garden Coordinator (garden@alliancemedicalministry.org) to learn more.

Alliance closed again today due to the weather

Alliance will be closed again today, Friday, February 14 due to the weather.  We hope you all stay safe and warm!  We will resume our normal schedule on Monday.

Alliance will be closed due to the snow

Alliance is closing for the inclement weather as of 12:30 pm today, February 12 and will also be closed on Thursday, February 13.  Enjoy the snow and be safe!

Thank You for your Support in 2013!

I want to extend a heartfelt and hearty thank you to all of our donors, volunteers and friends who help to make 2013 – our 10^th Anniversary year – a success at Alliance! We raised new friends and reengaged old friends at our spring open house, garden workdays, Farm to Table Anniversary Dinner, Fun with Friends and created many new volunteer opportunities.

We raised funds that allowed Alliance to continue to provide exceptional patient care to our working neighbors and pilot new wellness programs.

We helped patients navigate the ACA insurance exchange.

All of these efforts and much more will be highlighted in our upcoming 2013 Annual Report that will be available online and our newsletter late this spring.

Out with the old and in with the new  . . . 2014 is going to be a stellar year at Alliance!  We are...

Expanding our patient wellness programs to include regular yoga classes, nutrition classes, monthly diabetes education classes (including a pilot program for patients’ children, Growing Healthy Gardens, in partnership with the Poe Center for Health Education), monthly mammography clinics, garden programs and activities.

Watching our garden grow.  We are adding raised beds and benches thanks to a couple of awesome Eagle Scouts, adding fruit bushes and an herb garden.

Welcoming 2 baby girls to our Alliance family. Drs. Hicks and Parker are expecting in the first quarter of the year!

Hosting events for volunteers, donors and friends including a volunteer and garden celebration and kick off in late March, a Women’s’ Luncheon focusing on women’s health disparity, Walk in Her Shoes, May 1, and many more throughout the year.

Come on board and join the Alliance Family.  We are making a difference in the community because of YOU!

Megg Rader President & Executive Director Alliance Medical Ministry

The Beat Goes on for Timothy...

“I am an original member of Trouble Funk,” shared Timothy.  Trouble Funk is a funk band from Washington, DC that made “go-go” music popular in the 80’s.  “I played percussion. We started in DC, but then traveled the world playing music.”

Towards the end of his career, Timothy weighed 465 pounds.  “I worked all night and then would eat bad food before I would go to bed.” He finally realized that he needed to do something.  Before too long, Timothy had lost 145 pounds!

As Timothy retired from the band and prepared to move to Raleigh to be near family, his friends told him that by moving to “the south” he would gain his weight back.  Determined to prove them wrong, Timothy found Alliance at the suggestion of his family.

At his first appointment last April, his weight had already sneaked back up to 387.  “I really did not know I was in bad health,” Timothy said.  “But after talking with Dr. Hicks I learned there was so much more I needed to do.  “Now I walk six days a week.  I eat smaller portions.  When the weight started to come off, I was motivated to do more.  I eat more fruits and vegetables now than I ever have.  The best part is that everyone is so proud of me!”

Now, just 9 months after Timothy joined the Alliance family, he lost 60 pounds! “It’s hard to make a complete life change, but Alliance has kept me focused.”   Timothy is enjoying his retirement and his family. He still plays with Trouble Funk if they have a large national concert. We are proud to be part of Timothy’s second act in life!

The show must go on! Based on Timothy’s income, he does not make enough money to qualify for healthcare subsidies through the Affordable Care Act.  He can’t afford health insurance, does not qualify for Medicaid, and has a few more years before he will qualify for Medicare.  Timothy is one of tens of thousand adults in Wake County who still reside in the healthcare gap. When he is eligible for Medicare, our healthcare system will gain a healthier man who goes by the beat of his own drum!