The University of Maryland hosted a free dental clinic in the Xfinity Center on Friday, September 5.
The College Park City Council plans to play a larger role in the next Mid-Maryland Mission of Mercy and Health Equity Festival, a topic they discussed with this university’s Center for Health Equity Director Stephen Thomas at a meeting last Wednesday.
September’s dental health event, which lasted two days and took place at the Xfinity Center, provided an estimated $1 million in free dental care to more than 1,000 people.
“The festival addresses human suffering in the midst of systems that are clearly broken,” Thomas said. “Our focus is on improving the quality of life and the quality of health for citizens of College Park and Prince George’s County in general.”
The event was made possible by the Health Equity Center, he said, which collaborated with the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington.
While council members contributed this year by spreading the word among their constituents, some expressed interest in taking on a larger responsibility in preparation for the next festival, which Thomas said is tentatively scheduled for 2016.
“We wanted to stress that the city did have some role in helping out this year,” District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn said. “I’d like to see it do more, but we did try to advertise it to potential volunteers.”
Thomas suggested the city could do more helping expand the festival’s translation services — many of those treated did not speak English — and providing waivers to “target communities,” ensuring that those who are most in need receive treatment first.
“Our aim for 2016 is to come back with a program that gives people their smiles back,” Thomas said. “It took a year in planning, and we would like to include the council in that planning process.”
He said roughly 1,500 of those who came seeking care were turned away because the festival lacked the capacity to treat them, which suggested a very high demand, city officials said.
“The number of people that you couldn’t serve shows the high level of demand that was demonstrated for the services that this event made available,” Wojahn said. “It really is striking.”
Additionally, the city may stand to gain more from the festival than the services themselves.
“Sixty-six million people read a story about what happened in College Park,” Thomas said. “The publicity value of the event was $52,000, as calculated by the Department of Communications. We don’t get that kind of visibility here.”
But council members kept the focus on altruistic motives, raving about the good the festival accomplished for those who received care.
“It was very inclusive, people from all walks of life were there,” District 2 Councilman P.J. Brennan said. “It was so much more dynamic than a simple service — it was incredibly overwhelming. I got to see people who were so grateful thanking me. It was truly inspiring.”
The success of this year’s affair aside, Thomas stressed the importance of continuing the tradition of the Health Equity Festival into the future.
“Any time the community comes together for something bigger than themselves, we come away with a sense of our capacity to really make a difference,” Thomas said. “I hope we can give some assurances to all the people who were turned away that there is hope and they can expect to come back with a bigger and better opportunity to improve themselves and their community.”
