LITTLE ROCK — Alisa Lancaster picked up a large yellow rubber ducky and explained why she had so many of the bath toys sitting around her office. Lancaster is on the board of directors for the Christian Health Center in Batesville, and she is planning a Rubber Ducky Regatta as a fundraiser for the clinic’s new building.
Currently, the clinic is housed in classrooms at Believers Community Church. The nonprofit health care clinic, which comprises volunteers, provides medical services to uninsured adults. Because it’s so difficult to construct and deconstruct the clinic, which resembles a MASH unit in its current location, the board has obtained a building for a permanent location.
“We may expand services at that point,” Lancaster said about the new building, which is located in the old Wade’s Refrigeration Inc. building on Lawrence Street. “It will be just like a physician’s office with a waiting room.”
The new location will also have examination rooms, and Lancaster said services may be expanded to include lab work and other medical testing.
The Rubber Ducky Regatta will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 8 in conjunction with the White River Water Carnival.
Ducks may be sponsored for $10 each, and numbers will be placed on the bottoms of the ducks. Three large prizes have been donated. The duck that first crosses the finish line will win its sponsor a Bad Boy Mower, the second-place winner will get a Brinkman Grill, and the third-place winner will receive an ATV winch.
“We will keep them and feed them and train them,” Lancaster said with a laugh about taking care of the ducks that others sponsor.
The ducks will be dropped off of the White River bridge and allowed to f loat down the river and over the dam. Lancaster said Independence County Sheriff’s Department deputies will wait in a patrol boat to collect the first three ducks to cross the finish line.
“We got a $53,000 tobacco grant,” Lancaster said, “but that requires matching funds.”
She said how much the Rubber Ducky Regatta raises determines if the clinic will receive the full amount of the grant.
The Christian Health Center of Batesville opened in 2010 and sees patients from 6-9 p.m. every third Thursday of the month.
There is an $8 charge for each patient, and that amountincludes a doctor visit and any necessary lab work and prescriptions. A pharmacist and pharmacy technicians will also be part of the volunteer staff. Lancaster said there is a $5 charge for prescriptions, but no one will be turned away if not able to pay those amounts.
For more information on the clinic, visit chcofbatesville.com.
To sponsor a duck, donate to the clinic or get more information on the regatta, call Lancaster at (870) 805-0798 orRiley Davidson at (870) 834-5441.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosiuscan be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.
com.
Three Rivers, Pages 47 on 07/26/2012