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Fund raiser to benefit medical clinic
A fund raiser for the Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic, a program run by UB medical students, will be held from 7-10 p.m. Saturday in Jade, a nightclub on Delaware Avenue, just south of Chippewa Street.
Five first- and second-year UB medical students and Chester Fox, clinical associate professor of family medicine, opened Lighthouse in October 2001. Students run every aspect of the clinic, located at 1609 Genesee St. in one of the poorest neighborhoods on Buffalo's East Side.
Clinic hours are 6-8 p.m. on Wednesdays. Students, who are supervised on-site by a volunteer attending physician from the UB Department of Family Medicine, typically see 12-25 patients a night on a walk-in basis.
Since the clinic opened, students have provided care for more than 800 people, as well as performed up to 200 sports physicals for teams in a Buffalo junior football league and administered several hundred flu and pneumonia shots.
During the past year, more than 100 students—more than one-third of the first- and second-year classes—have volunteered at the clinic. In addition to providing an essential service to the uninsured, Lighthouse provides clinical experience for young doctors-in-training.
Clinic operations are funded entirely by grants and donations.
Tickets for the fund raiser are $5 at the door. Raffle tickets will be sold before and during the event at $2 each or seven for $5.
A band comprised of UB medical students will perform cover songs and original music.
Donations, both monetary and in the form of a raffle prize, will be accepted before and during the event.
For further information or to donate an item, contact the clinic at 892-2914 or lighthousemed-list@listserv.buffalo.edu.
Art benefit to help Vive la Casa
UB's Art Historical Association, an organization of UB graduate students, will sponsor a benefit on Saturday for Buffalo's Vive la Casa, the largest shelter for international refugees on the U.S.-Canadian border.
The benefit, "Between & Within," will feature an art exhibition, sale and auction, and performances by area bands. It will take place at 8 p.m. in Harriman Hall, South Campus. It is open to the public and all ages are welcome. A donation of $7 at the door is requested.
The artwork to be sold or auctioned was donated by UB students and other local and national artists. Musicians who will perform during the evening include local bands Vox Humana, The Wintersleepers and Molotov Cocktail, as well as The Model Sons, a band from the Boston area.
Vive La Casa has a long history of support by UB students. Located on Wyoming Avenue in Buffalo, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and cares for all who walk through its doors with a variety of services. It can house 118 international asylum seekers at one time—individuals who otherwise would be homeless in the City of Buffalo.
Vive La Casa has served more than 5,600 persons in the past six months alone and hundreds of thousands of refugees—many from Latin America and the Middle East—since it was founded in 1992. It also is the headquarters of Vive, Inc., a world refugee organization that since 1984 has provided shelter, health, legal and other essential needs for refugees fleeing war and persecution who seek asylum and new lives in Canada.
The shelter is operated by volunteers, as well as 14 staff members, among them security guards, an attorney and other professionals who speak a total of eight languages, including Spanish, French, Russian, Somali, Swahili, and Arabic. Long-term residents help fill in language gaps.