Free health services were offered on Saturday to community members, through RAM, the Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic.

It's their second visit to Erie, which illustrates the need for more free medical services in our community.

People wasted no time getting free medical care in the early hours of the morning.


Hailey Vittetoe, a RAM Clinic Coordinator said, "It's rewarding. You are working with patients every weekend. I don't think people realize what the lack of care is until you are really in it and you hear so many patient stories where they didn't have the access and care has been neglected for years."


The organization travels around the country with volunteers who provide free vision, dental, and other medical services to the different communities they make stops in.


As Vittetoe explained, "It's rewarding to me because here in Erie, the community host group is so passionate and I love when it works out. This clinic has been so smooth, the patients have been so grateful. We put in a lot of hard work, but the community host group has been amazing and put in a ton of effort."


This is their second visit to Erie and they are overwhelmed by the appreciation from community members. Some of the services provided, people said are life changing, making all the difference in the world.


One story standing out to the Development Coordinator of the Hamot Health Foundation, Shawn Bednard, "There was a volunteer this year, who was a volunteer on Sunday last year, who started off as a patient. He got a molar taken out and got vision care and he got his first pair of glasses ever. He came out because it was free. He didn't know what to expect. He loved it so much, he became a volunteer."


Bednard said it's stories like those that show the importance of giving back. 


The clinic continues Sunday at the Erie Center for Arts and Technology from first thing in the morning to early afternoon.