Feast for St. Nick: Saturday, April 17

If you’ve ever paid a health insurance bill, your brain and bank account have felt some significant pain. Imagine, though, if your annual income barely covers your rent, food, car, gas and your children’s clothes, and that you’re ineligible for state or federal benefits.

When uninsured working folks and their families get sick, where can they get help?

The St. Nicholas Family Clinic. Located at 1901 Kentucky Ave., the St. Nicholas clinic welcomes working folks in need to simply walk in — free of charge — and receive the care they need.

Show your support for the clinic — and enjoy a great meal — at the first annual Feast for St. Nick. It’s set for 7 p.m., Saturday, April 17. The cost is $75.

All you need to do is email the event’s chairperson Dee Dee Whittaker to reserve your spot and plan to enjoy drinks, hors d’oeuvres, a catered dinner, dessert and a take-home gift at one of these 16 host homes:

Kevin and Heather Baer
Tom and Cindy Butterbaugh
Mike and Caroline Cappock
Tim and Barbara Harris
Phil and Betty Higdon
Brad and Kijsa Housman with Ryan and Carla Frazine
David and Karen Hogancamp with Bill and Susan Evans
Hilary and Ginny Hunt
David Lucht and Stefanie Graves
David and Melisa Mast with Glenn and Heather Denton
Michael and Darlene Mazzone
Robert and Karen Petter with Tony and Lucy Milliano
Glen and Linda Titsworth
Mark and Kim Rust with Mark and Kathryn Joyner
Gregory and Nan Waldrop
Gary and Lisa Zakutney

David and Stefani, by the way, will donate 20 percent of any artwork they sell that evening at their Cowango Studios.

With the unaffordable cost of health care coverage, St. Nicholas Executive Director Anita Wyatt says she knows exactly what her patients are going through.

“I used to be a single mom and had to buy my own health insurance, which was $400 a month,” Wyatt recalls. “My needs were on the back burner because I had to keep going to get my kids through school, pay rent and so forth. I know from personal experience that I would have had to drop it if it got much higher.

“We’re talking about lower middle class people — even middle class people,” Wyatt adds. “Even if you have health insurance, one catastrophe can wipe you out financially.”