This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Free School Physicals Day Prepares Loudoun County Students for Enrollment

Now in its fourth year, Free School Physicals Day helped more than 80 kindergartners and new students from low-income families get ready for school

There's more to going back to school than new backpacks and pencils.

Part of the back to school season is required physicals, which can be prohibitive to some familes.

Fortunately, for the past four years, there has been help for local families who might have trouble affording them.

Find out what's happening in Leesburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

More than 80 kindergartners and students from low-income families received free school physicals as part of Free School Physicals Day, held Saturday at Loudon Community Health Center in Leesburg.

Free School Physicals Day is a yearly event intended for kindergartners and new students entering Loudon County Public Schools who are from low-income families that can not afford the cost of school physicals.

Find out what's happening in Leesburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Loudon Community Health Center, a non-profit health clinic, organized Free School Physicals Day with the help of more than 80 volunteers from Loudon County Department of Health, Inova, Loudon County Public Schools and Loudon Free Clinic. 

A team of volunteer doctors, dentists, school nurses and ophthalmologists checked students’ vital signs, physical health and vision while health department staff brought students up-to-date on their vaccinations so that they can meet the requirements of school enrollment. Volunteers from the Junior League of Northern Virginia greeted families in the lobby and handed out donated backpacks stuffed with new school supplies to every child who left the clinic.

 

“By the time they’re done, the kids are ready for school,” said Stephanie Kenyon, chief operating officer at Loudon Community Health Center. If children needed more medical attention than what doctors and nurses could provide during the free clinic, Kenyon said arrangements would be made. “It doesn’t just end here,” she added.

For Caroline Gundersrud of Lansdowne, a visit to Free School Physicals Day meant that her son, Jariah, is now ready to enter kindergarten at Belmont Station Elementary in the fall. Gundersrud said that she does not have health insurance and is also hoping to go back to school.

By mid-afternoon, Thomas P. McGorry, a retired pediatrician from Hamilton, had given physicals to nearly 10 children and noted the importance of the day’s work, considering that a school physical can cost at least $150.

“It saves the parents a lot of money. It’s expensive to get a physical and you can’t get into school without a physical,” McGorry said. “The money is much better spent for school supplies.”

As a pediatrician who practiced medicine in Loudon County for nearly 35 years, McGorry described the Loudon Community Health Center as a “medical home” to the uninsured. “This is an affluent county but people don’t realize how many working poor there are in this county,” he said.

 According to Kenyon, Loudon Community Health Center has provided healthcare to 8,000 patients since opening in 2007 and there are currently 900 people on the clinic’s waiting list. The non-profit clinic provides medical, dental and mental health services to anyone in need, regardless of ability or inability to pay, or health insurance status.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?