Ross Gallabrese Among those helping to prepare for the April 26 Ohio Valley Health Center Gala are, from left, Alisa DelGuzzo and Susan Tarr, members of the gala committee’s executive committee; Ann Quillen, executive director of the center; and Chris Orris, a member of the executive committee.

STEUBENVILLE — When you are planning an event that helps to raise about one-third of an organization’s working budget, it’s critical to have a strong support team in place.

That’s the case with the Ohio Valley Health Center, which is in the process of pulling together its annual gala.

Scheduled to be held April 26 at the St. Florian Event Center, there are many small pieces that go into making the event a success. And, helping out with those logistics is a volunteer committee whose members remain dedicated to the center’s mission of providing quality health care to the uninsured and underinsured residents of the region.

“That whole gala committee is important,” said Ann Quillen, the center’s executive director. “There are about 30 people involved who collect items for mystery box packages, create the baskets and decorate for the event. It’s a wonderful group of people, and they really appreciate the center’s mission.”

This year’s theme for the gala is a Roaring 20 Years of Hope, Health and Healing. It’s appropriate, gala officials explained, because it celebrates the center’s 20th anniversary, and the work it has done in the community during the last two decades.

“It’s a good cause,” said Susan Tarr of A&B Pharmacy, a member of the gala’s executive committee. “There are a lot of people out there who don’t have insurance. I run into a lot of people who are uninsured, and I always refer them to the center.”

Tarr is a member of the gala committee’s executive committee, which includes Chris Orris of Valley Hospice and Alisa DelGuzzo of Trevida Healthcare.

DelGuzzo said there’s an enthusiasm shared by members of the committee.

“It’s the same for all of us,” she said. “This is a great asset for the community, not just for Jefferson County, but for the entire Ohio Valley.”

Their efforts are important.

“These people represent the community partners for us,” Quillen said. “They do the extra work that helps pull our gala season together. I couldn’t do it without their support. They pick up a lot of loose ends and stay on top of things.”

Quillen said having access to the care the clinic offers is important — and that makes money raised during the gala critical.

“Especially if people have chronic diseases, like diabetes, where they have to purchase the medication and then they have specialty care that insurance doesn’t cover,” she explained. “We end up with a lot of people here who don’t know what they’d do — they would have to quit their job so they could qualify for Medicaid, just so they could stay alive.”

And that, explained Mark Judy, is exactly what nobody wants to see.

Judy and his family — Gina, his wife, and Kimberly Sherretts and Stephanie Presutti, their daughters — are serving as chairs for the gala. They have been longtime supporters of the center and have been involved with the gala for many years.

“Certainly, the health center is a force multiplier,” he added. “You see that we had a budget last year of about $420,000 or so, and we were able to provide $1.7 million in benefits. So, that’s a four-times multiplier on the money we receive. That’s due to the great staff we have here and the great medical providers who volunteer their time here.”

The health center has 805 active patients, according to numbers supplied by Quillen. Last year, patients received care with a total value of $1,126,804. The center’s pharmacy filled 4,470 prescriptions with a total value of $531,953. And, it provided another $97,200 in community impact.

Quillen has described its typical patient as being a woman in her 50s who is employed and who has found herself with limited insurance or no coverage.

“I was very surprised,” Orris said. “I always thought it would be the poorest of the poor, but there are a lot of people my age and my mother’s age who have lost their insurance or they have lost their husbands. They never had to worry about those things or even know what to do.”

That’s why, Quillen said, the work of volunteers is important to the center on many levels.

“I think free clinics operate on volunteers,” she said. “Not only is our gala committee made up of volunteers, but all of our doctors and nurse practitioners are volunteers as well. It is always important for people to consider volunteering their time, knowing they are going to make such an impact on the lives of so many people.”

Last year, Quillen said, the clinic had a total of 73 volunteers who recorded 2,701 volunteer hours, which worked out to $162,863 in valued hours.

The center, Mark Judy and Quillen said, is always looking for health care providers who are willing to volunteer time.

“Obviously, we would always like to see more people involved,” Judy said. “But there are many doctors who are passionate — Dr. Charn Nandra (the center’s medical director) is very passionate about helping his patients. We do have a nice collection of nurse practitioners and medical students who come here and volunteer their time.”

There’s always an opportunity for more volunteers.

“We aren’t looking for someone to sacrifice a whole week or a whole day, but a few hours to see five or six patients,” Quillen said. “That can really make a difference in the lives of those five or six people.”

Some of the area residents who receive care at the clinic end up donating their time.

“We were stuffing envelopes here one day, and there were volunteers who had been patients,” Gina Judy said.

Her efforts for the health center have included designing the invitations for this year’s gala.

Tickets for the gala are $65 a person and can be found on the health center’s website, ovhealthcenter.org. Sponsorships, Quillen said, also are available. Attendees are being encouraged to wear period costumes as a tribute to the theme. The evening will open with a cocktail event at 5 p.m. Mystery prize boxes will be available for purchase and a live auction will be held.

Until the night of the event, volunteers will continue working to ensure its success.

“The gala committee is helping to bring everything together. It’s a great support team and everyone is outstanding to work with,” Sherretts said. “It’s our spring activity — it’s a group you only see once a year, and it’s a good group to work with — they’re very supportive.”