Current news and updates regarding the Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine Community.
Kari Simpson is our volunteer of the month for October 2022!
Kari volunteers as a Triage Nurse and has over 780 volunteer hours in her year and a half at LVIM. She recently graduated from Florida Southern College with her MSN and is now a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner. When Kari is not at LVIM, she enjoys kayaking, paddle boarding, and reading. Her favorite part of being an LVIM volunteer is the people and being at LVIM and serving others.
Congratulations Kari, on being a volunteer of the month and all of your recent accomplishments!
We’re excited to share that our organization has earned our 2022 Platinum Seal of Transparency with Candid!
It is very important to LVIM that you can support our work with trust and confidence and to know that YOU make a difference!
View our full profile here: 
Here’s one more special invitation for you and any guests you’d like to invite. In preparation for the Gift of Good Health Luncheon, LVIM is hosting showings of Bending the Arc at LVIM. Bending the Arc is a documentary about a team of young people, including Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Yong Kim, whose charitable medical work nearly 40 years ago ignited a global health movement. These crusaders took their fight from the village to the world stage, to ensure that health care is a right for all and that geography should not determine destiny.
Click here to watch the inspiring trailer.
There is no cost to attend these showings, but we do request an RSVP as space is limited.
**Childcare is available with Carilly on Friday, 9/30 from 6-9PM AND on Saturday, 10/1 from 3:30-6:30PM
We are so excited to bring back Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine’s Gift of Good Health Benefit Luncheon on November 17, 2022 at Bonnet Springs Park. (Full details and event invitation attached.)
The Gift of Good Health is a unique opportunity to learn about LVIM’s past successes, present challenges, and future vision.
You’ll hear from our CEO, Alice Koehler and experience an inspiring patient story, and guests will have the opportunity to financially support the LVIM mission to provide high quality, compassionate FREE primary medical, dental, and mental healthcare to working individuals and families in Polk County.
This year, the Gift of Good Health will feature keynote speakers, Dr. Kevin Fiori and Jennifer Schechter, MSW, the 2016 recipients of the Sargent Shriver Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award.
Kevin is a general pediatrician, researcher and educator. He is an Assistant Professor in both the Division of Academic General Pediatrics and Department of Family and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY. He is also Medial Director at the Office of Community and Population Health for the Montefiore Health System and Chief Science Officer of Integrate Health. His research focuses on health disparities in communities both in the Bronx and abroad. He completed his Masters in Public Health through Boston University as part of the Masters International Program within the Peace Corps and subsequently earned his MD from the University of Washington. Kevin was awarded the Ellen Griep Award for Excellence by the University of Washington School of Medicine, the 2015 Chairman’s Award for Distinction in Research, and the 2015 Behavioral Science Award for Excellence from the Department of Family and Social Medicine.
While he was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Kevin and a few other colleagues (including his now wife), founded Integrate Health, an organization that strives to make quality healthcare accessible for all, beginning in Togo. Integrate Health works alongside governments and the local community to implement and study an integrated approach to strengthening primary healthcare delivery.
Kevin is married to Integrate Health co-founder and CEO, Jennifer Schechter. From her bio: “The innovations developed by Integrate Health and the Togolese Ministry of Health are contributing to the global movement to bring about systems-level change in the way primary healthcare is delivered. Under her leadership, Jennifer has been recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative. She is a Rainer Arnhold Fellow with the Mulago Foundation and a recipient of the Cordes Fellowship. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in International Politics from Georgetown University and Masters degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the University of Washington.”
Kevin and Jennifer were, together, awarded the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service in 2016.
Additionally, as they built Integrate Health, they were mentored by the late, great Dr. Paul Farmer.
We are seeking event ($2,500) and table ($500) sponsorships and would love if you would consider supporting the LVIM mission in this way. Each of these sponsorships comes with the opportunity to invite eight guests (including yourself) to experience inspiration, learn about the healthcare needs of our community, and to join you in supporting our very important mission.
To confirm your commitment, please follow this LINK HERE.
And, of course, if you have any questions, please let us know.
Darlene Abela is our volunteer of the month for September 2022!
Darlene volunteers as a patient escort on Monday mornings and has 275 volunteer hours in her year and a half with LVIM.
Before coming to LVIM, Darlene was an elementary school teacher in Michigan for 30 years.
In her spare time, she enjoys playing cards, walking, biking, and attending car shows with her husband.
Darlene’s favorite part about
volunteering at LVIM is the random acts of kindness she can show our patients.
Congratulations Darlene on being our volunteer of the month!
Debbie Hoelscher is our Volunteer of the Month for August 2022! Debbie serves as a lead volunteer at our mobile food pantry.
She has volunteered at LVIM for 20 years and has over 1500 volunteer hours both in the food pantry and as an RN.
Debbie served as a Neonatal APRN around the Midwest since 1977. In her role, she worked as a transport nurse. When Debbie is not serving at LVIM she enjoys spending time with her grandkids, ballet, traveling, hiking, and biking. When asked what keeps her coming back to LVIM she said that it is the patients and the mission of LVIM that keep her coming back!
Thank you, Debbie, for spending the last 20 years serving at LVIM!
Walmart’s philanthropic efforts seek to unlock or create a solution that can’t be accomplished by the market and help transform systems for better outcomes.
Together, business and philanthropy, through the collaborative efforts of many, can help transform systems for better outcomes.
LVIM is grateful to the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and for it’s continued support of the LVIM mission!
To find out more about Walmart and the funding opportunities in our community, visit https://walmart.org/who-we-are.
