More than 200 UConn student volunteers will join together with teams of medical, dental, and vision care providers this Saturday and Sunday as the University’s Medical Clinic Club, in partnership with the nonprofit Remote Area Medical, takes over Windham Middle School in Willimantic to offer a free pop-up health care clinic to area residents.

Patient parking will open at midnight on Saturday, March 8, for the clinic, with doors opening at 6:00 a.m. as services are provided on a first-come, first-served basis – at no cost – with doors closing once the day’s capacity is reached.

Parking starts again at midnight on Sunday, March 9, with doors opening at 6:00 a.m. and the two-day clinic ending once it again reaches capacity.

Patients should plan to attend as early as possible to ensure they’re able to be seen. All services are free and open to the general public. No identification is required, and Spanish-language interpreters and providers will be on-site and readily available for both days.

This weekend’s free clinic marks the second occasion that the Medical Clinic Club has organized this event to offer no-cost care to those in need in the greater Willimantic area alongside Remote Area Medical, or RAM, which helps run the clinics.

The first clinic, held in March 2024 and led by UConn alum Brooke DiVasto ’24 (CLAS), saw more than 400 volunteers provide more than $150,000 in free health care services to 212 patients over two days, according to Cameron Costa ’26 (CLAS), a physiology and neurobiology major at UConn Storrs and the club’s current president and community host group lead.

“We’re all just super excited, because it’s nice to see the impact of an initiative,” Costa says. “Having that first year under our belts, we were able to meet these patients. A lot of us were able to hear their stories, hear how infrequently they were able to get medical care, and seeing that impact really gives us the drive and passion to keep doing this work.”

The student-driven clinic, Costa says, is led by a nine-person organizing team that spends the better part of the year planning, organizing, and fundraising to support the effort.

Over the past 12 months, the club has raised more than $30,000 in private donations and through a GoFundMe campaign as well as through grants used to help fund the clinic. They’ve been aided in their efforts by their fiduciary partner, Access Agency, and by financial support from Undergraduate Student Government and through a Co-op Legacy Fellowship Program – Change Grant from the University’s Office of Undergraduate Research.

The Change Grant, Costa explains, was used to outfit a new Resource Hallway for the clinic, where patients will have access to nonperishable food items, personal care items, and other supplies they can take home with them after receiving care – an addition to this year’s clinic that the student organizers are excited to be able to offer to those who attend.

“We’ve got diapers and baby food, baby formula,” Costa says. “Hygiene products, things like hairbrushes, nail clippers, toothbrushes and toothpaste. We’ve got a lot of different nonperishable food options, like pasta and rice, but also soups and vegetables and stews. We did a book sorting event at the Mansfield Public Library, alongside the Friends of the Mansfield Library, and we got a lot of books from them that we thought would be good for the elementary-to-middle school level, study books for parents or kids to take with them. We’ve got some emergency options, like emergency thermal blankets, winter hats and gloves – because it’s still a little bit cold out. We cast a very wide net on the items we wanted to have in the hallway.”

While volunteer registration for this year’s clinic has closed – response from the UConn community was enthusiastic, and the club met its volunteer goals weeks ago, Costa says – the club is already organizing for next year and beyond.

UConn students interested in joining in the effort are encouraged to connect with the club through UContact in order to receive the most up-to-date information on volunteer opportunities, to become an active member, or to learn more about the club’s work. UConn students interested in volunteering for the next clinic are urged to sign up early, Costa says.

This year, club members also plan to expand the scope of their work, Costa explains, to help those who attend this weekend’s clinic find the care they need beyond the actual clinic days.

“A big thing about us is that it’s not just free care for this one day – follow-up care is super important,” he says. “After the clinic, all of our volunteers will come together for two nights to call back all of these patients to help them organize follow-up care. We’ve already worked with some local medical, dental, and vision offices that are in the area and are open to new patients, open to patients who may not have insurance, or open to patients that maybe have Medicare or Medicaid.

“So, it definitely a big job, and it’s a lot of work, but it’s very meaningful work, and we’re all really happy and grateful that we have support to do this.”