ustxtxb_obs_2006_09_22_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

Kate Wanstrom, Irma Leos, Iris Korus, and Marilyn Sanders-McCrory photo by Sterry Butcher ‘ . ,qk., A “All these people wanted to keep Kate here and provide better health care;’ Scott said. “Why should we settle? Why can’t we ask for more? Why can’t we build more? If we can have two coffee shops in town, surely we can have two clinics.” Wanstrom was overwhelmed. “My husband and I decided that if we had a meeting to gauge interest and 50 people came, we’d commit ourselves to trying to get a community clinic started,” she said. “More than 200 came. I think a lot of people were fed up with their clinic being such a low priority.” During the same week as the AmVets meeting, a group of state and county officials was nearby talking Marilyn Sanders-McCrory, a retired professor, into a volunteer job that would eventually take over much of her life. The local officials and representatives of several state agencies were meeting at the courthouse in Marfa to focus on getting health services into Presidio. Presidio sits across the Rio Grande from Ojinaga, Chihuahua, where the ocotillos come into their fiery, Dr. Seussian bloom in the springtime and the mountains loom blue all around. Poorer than Marfa, the community had long been on the radar of the state’s health agencies. State and federal money was available and waiting, the officials told Sanders-McCrory. They saw the chance to set up a Federally Qualified Health Center \(or a similar These clinics must offer comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health services, plus maintain a small, on-site SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11