Page 41 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

Happy New Year, fellow groovy Guernevillians! I hope you all had a heartwarming, safe holiday and are looking forward to this New Year! We congratulate our Parade of Lights Princess, Bridgette Neeley, for the fantastic job
FIRE UPDATE: Russian River
Health Center (RRHC) was destroyed
by a major fire late Christmas night.
By Jennifer Neeley
West County Health Centers is saddened to report that the fire completely
she did representing our groovy town, selling over 2,000 raffle tickets to help support our groovy Parade of Lights! Thank all of you and the other contestants for participating and enjoying such a spectacular event!
destroyed the RRHC building. Russian River Health Center has been a vital source of medical care in our community for more than 40 years and we will rebuild as quickly as possible. We are confident that we will be able to continue to care for all of our patients. Information and Updates are posted regularly on the Health Centers website www.wchealth.org .
Bridgette received a $500
CD sponsored by Vanguard
Properties and Community
First Credit Union, her
beautiful tiara, donated
by Don, at Rose’s River
Jewelers, the opportunity to
work with several business
owners while promoting
our groovy town and also
Bridgette donated numerous
hours of Community
Service. Congratulations
Bridgette! Thank you to the
Russian River Chamber of
Commerce for their endless
work and those who helped make our Holiday Extravaganza a huge success!
While we are on the subject of our local youth, be sure to support El Molino High School’s Drama/Musical performance of “Once Upon A Mattress”! This is a musical comedy adapted from the fairy tale The Prince and The Pea. Performances will be held at the Café Theater January 21-23 and 28-30.
Readers Theatre (presented by the River Friends of the Library) will open its 12th season this month! Performances are at 7pm on the last Wednesday of January, February and March, and a 2pm matinee the following Saturday. The Wednesday performances are followed by a pot luck mixer for performer and audience members. All programs are free and open to the public. (Content is intended for adults and older teens). This year’s season includes a play by our very own groovy Guerneville resident, John Rowan, as well as 2 plays by San Francisco playwrights! Readers Theatre is a stimulating and fun opportunity for friends and neighbors to mingle in a safe and comfortable environment!
I am saddened and disappointed this month to report once again, the Russian Riverkeeper Park has been vandalized and riddled with spray paint “tags”. Unfortunately, the future of this much needed park for educating youth, is in jeopardy. Please report all suspicious activity by phoning the dispatch
line of Sonoma County Sheriff’s Dept. at 707-565-2121. Calls to this number are recorded onto an activity sheet and the more activity that is reported, the more justification will be made for additional support in our area.
Please do not feed the homeless away from the shelter! I realize your heart
is in the right place, but providing food on the “street” leaves nothing but a huge mess for us all to walk around and have to clean up! This morning our sidewalks were covered in food waste and garbage, the remnants of a Good Samaritan, feeding a group of people on the sidewalk! If you want to help, please contact Debra Johnson at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and sign up for a shift at the shelter to provide and serve food! She has informed me that there are several shifts that need to be covered by our groovy volunteers! You can reach Debra at 707-869-9011. And congratulations to Debra Johnson who was presented the Sonoma County Spirit Award by the Board of Supervisors, for all of her endless Community Service! Groovy Girl!!!
Happy New Year to All!
“The strength of our Health Center is in the people... our staff, our care teams, our patients and our community. We will rebuild our Russian River Health Center building and we look forward to the opportunity to create something even better
for our patients.”- Mary Szecsey, Executive Director, West County Health Centers
Currently, West County Health
Centers has a plan
in place for RRHC patients to continue seeing their RRHC Medical providers
and care teams. More detailed information including answers to “Frequently Asked Questions” for patients can be found on their website at: www. wchealth.org/news/ Russian-River-Health- Center-Fire-Recovery
Dr. Michelle Davey and Dr. Jared Garrison-Jakel in front of the Russian River Health Center Sunday following the fire that destroyed the building at Third and Church St. in Guerneville.
Russian River Health Center PATIENT APPOINTMENTS:
We will be contacting all of our scheduled RRHC patients to let them know where to go for their next appointment. If you need to make an appointment, call the usual RRHC phone number (707) 869-2849, and we will schedule
the appointment and let you know the location. For the time being, most appointments will be scheduled at our Gravenstein Community Health Center in Sebastopol.
RRHC Patients who are unable to travel: There are a couple of options if you cannot travel. We will have one clinical team working out of temporary offices in our Russian River Dental Clinic on Third Street. We are also working
to arrange for a SHUTTLE SERVICE from Guerneville to take patients to the Gravenstein Center. located at 652 Petaluma Ave., Suite H, Sebastopol
All of us at West County Health Centers and the Russian River Health Center appreciate the tremendous outpouring of support from our community as we move forward with rebuilding and recovering from the fire. West County Health Centers is accepting DONATIONS from people who want to help the Russian River Health Center recover from this fire and rebuild.
Please visit www.wchealth.org/help/donations to donate online or checks may be mailed to: Russian River Health Center, c/o West County Health Centers, PO BOX 1449, Guerneville, CA 95446
Jane Barry (WCHC Operations Manager & Emergency Response Co- ordinator) has set up the West County Health Centers Emergency Response Units 1 & 2 behind the Russian River Dental Clinic which is located across the street from the Russian River Health Center
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