Medical professionals lend a hand to students, teachers

AALIYAH BOWDEN | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Doctors and staff at Dedicated Senior Medical Center volunteered their services at Sugar Creek Charter School as cafeteria monitors assembled meal bags and  prepare uniforms for students

Doctors and staff walked out of their medical clinic and into the classroom.

Dedicated Senior Medical Center, which cares for elderly patients, stepped up to support Charlotte students and teachers.

On Wednesday, the health professionals wore navy blue shirts that read “Serve, Give, Love” to Sugar Creek Charter School on North Tryon Street to help as part of the clinic’s initiative “Serving and Giving September.”

After learning that 74% of Sugar Creek Charter students are economically disadvantaged, Dedicated Center’s Director Cierra Merriweather’s decided to make a difference by providing essential assistance to the school.

“We can’t simply focus on our cherished seniors while turning a blind eye to the struggles faced by our youth and education system today,” she said. “Our commitment extends beyond our patients...it's to be a positive resource for the entire community.”

The medical team served as cafeteria monitors, folded up extra uniforms for students in need, organized classroom areas, assembled meal bags for the event Walk A Night, and delivered papers to the classrooms.

“A lot of our patients take care of their grandchildren and some of them actually go to the school and so we decided, well, why not go help them in this way,” said Dr. LaToya Fulton, a primary care physician at Dedicated Senior Medical Center.

Some of the employees at Dedicated also have children who attend the K-8 school, which aims to end “generational poverty in the lives of its students.”

The initiative includes125 of the company’s clinics across 15 states that are looking for ways to give back and go beyond medical care by serving their local communities.

With students seeing the doctors walking around the school wearing their white coats could have potentially sparked their interest in the medical field.

“They can see that it's possible,” said Dr. Estefany Sanchez Mendez, geriatric medicine physician at Dedicated Senior Medical Center. “If they work hard, if they read and study, and of course they do what they have to do, they can get in. It doesn't matter where they come from.”

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