Open House: Blueprint for the Future

Guests gathered for our annual Open House on October 23 to learn about all that Culmore Clinic has accomplished this year and our big plans to come. Neighbors, supporters, volunteers and staff enjoyed light refreshments and a silent auction, heard remarks from leadership, and then took self-guided tours throughout The Clinic, welcomed by staff and volunteers waiting at each station to tell them more about the important work that happens in each space. Enjoy excerpts of the various remarks and photos from the day below!

Philip Elliot’s Speech (Excerpted)

It's so good to see everyone. This year’s Open House is more than a gathering—it’s a look at our Blueprint for the Future. Just like any great blueprint, it begins with a strong foundation. That is where everyone in this room comes in. OUR foundation is built on the generosity of our community and their focus on compassion, equity, and the belief that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. With your support, we’ve laid that groundwork. Over the years we have grown in so many ways. We’re now more than 130 volunteers strong, and support more than 1,000 patients. I hope you will agree with me, that growth is extraordinary.

Just as we’re here to share our Blueprint for the future, we’re also here to celebrate the partnerships we have that support our patients through the next generation of healthcare professionals. For these individuals, Culmore Clinic is a part of their blueprint of clinical experiences. Our partners include George Washington University for medical residents, as well as PA students and Marymount University for nursing students.

Maria Obeid Remarks (Excerpted)

It’s such a pleasure to welcome all of you—our donors, community partners, and volunteers—to our annual open house. I can’t believe that this is my third annual open house. Each year, this gathering reminds me of why we do what we do—why this clinic exists and why your continued support means so much.

Last year, we celebrated the trauma informed remodeling of our clinic-a project that focused on transforming our space in a way that focuses on safety, healing and well-being. The result is a warm, welcoming, purposeful environment. Who would have guessed that this work would become even more meaningful as we moved into 2025 when so many in our community are now facing uncertainty and fear due to the current policies? As a result, we’re even more focused on the safety of our patients. Our policies and procedures have changed as well. And our doors remain open, and our patients continue to come. For their visits. Together we continue to advocate for their best interests and of course their health.

In February, we reached a remarkable milestone—our 1,000th patient. It’s something to be proud of, but it also reminds us that the need in our community is growing. We’re seeing more patients with complex medical needs, and we’re working hard to ensure that each one receives the same compassionate, comprehensive care that defines who we are.

I want to share one story that captures the heart of what this clinic represents.

Ada is a 57 year old female. She married, had children, and began to suffer from chronic health problems at just 20 years old. She spent years seeking help in Guatemala’s hospitals and clinics but left each time with more questions than answers. 

Last year her specialist in Guatemala gave her a devastating prognosis: end-stage liver disease and she was told that her “spleen was not working”. She also had a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, low platelets, hypothyroidism and anxiety . Worst of all, she was told she had only three months to live. 

"I placed my hope in God,” she says. “And I began to believe that maybe, just maybe, I might find help in the United States.” 

That hope brought Ada across the border in July 2024 . After enduring a lifetime of hardship, she arrived in the U.S. gravely ill. She was frightened, alone, and unsure where to turn. Then she found Culmore Clinic.

 Here, she met people who care; providers who listen, and treat her with dignity. Through our volunteer providers and partners at Inova, Ada received the specialty care she urgently needed. The outcome was better than anyone dared hope for: her condition, while serious, was manageable.

Recently she came for a follow-up visit and shared her results, she told us what her Inova specialist said: “Whoever is caring for you at this clinic is doing a wonderful job—your treatments are right on target.”

Today, Ada continues to battle a serious liver condition and faces the unknowns of her immigration status. Her plan is to return to Guatemala once she’s well enough. Her journey is far from over — but she now walks it with courage, hope, and the knowledge that she has a treatment plan that will help her manage her chronic illness. 

“Thanks to God, I feel a little better because of the treatment I’ve received,” she says. “And I believe that with God — and with the help of the doctors at the clinic — I will move forward.” 

 Stories like Ada’s happen here every week. Behind every number—behind every “patient seen”—is a person who finds more than just medical care. They find compassion. They find respect. They find hope.

Lynette Sappe-Watkins Closing Remarks (Excerpted)

The theme of our event today is our Blueprint for the future. Blueprints are two dimensional. They are flat and they guide what is built. While the Blueprint is flat, I can assure you that our plans for the future are multi-dimensional. What fills out our plans are the love, hope and healing that exists all because our community comes together to support our neighbors. Importantly, our blueprint is guiding us toward a very important partnership with Wesley Housing Development Corporation. We have been talking about this for several years. With this partnership we’ll have our first permanent home, almost 5,000 square feet within their 95-unit senior affordable residential development, Kindred Crossing. This blueprint of our future includes:

Stability: A permanent home that ensures our clinic’s sustainability.

Space: Expanded rooms where more patients can be seen and served with dignity and we can serve the community as a whole with health education.

Strength: A location to maximize community partnerships, student learning, and expanded health services.

Kindred Crossing isn’t just a new building—it’s a demonstration of the support for our community. It is also the next page of our blueprint, designed to meet the needs of our neighbors today and for generations to come. While we have been planning for this partnership for a number of years, we are pleased that Wesley Housing has shared with our team that they will break ground on this project in the Spring of next year. Once construction begins they expect to move at a pretty quick pace, and we should have possession of our space to build our new, permanent home about 9 months after ground breaking. 

Construction always being a little unpredictable, we hesitate to put an exact date on completion, but we are hoping for a fall 2027 ribbon cutting on our new home.

In the meantime, we continue to stay focused on our patient population – dedicating our attention to their healthcare needs which we seek to meet every day.

What does that take you may ask yourself... 

As a free clinic, it starts with an army of volunteers. We have more than 130 people supporting the patients of Culmore Clinic. It takes partnerships... in particular partners like:

Inova – from Gynacology to Gastroenterology, Inova is more dedicated than ever to keeping healthcare accessible for the patients we serve together, including bi-montly visits from the Scharr Cancer Institute mammography bus.

Nova Scripts Central – Last year they delivered almost 2,000 prescriptions directly to the Clinic with a dollar value of more than $1.3 million

The Northern Virginia Dental Society Clinic – Oral health is a an indicator of overall health. That’s why we’re proud to partner with the Dental Society of Northern VA to support 240 dental appointments a year at their non-profit, volunteer-run dental clinic.

Carient Heart and Vascular: Offering our patients a very sophisticated cardiac imaging scan. This is a very expensive medical imaging test combines both PET and CT which provides detailed images of the heart and its blood flow.

Through partnerships and volunteers we receive almost $4 million of in-kind services. 

Our in-kind support is certainly something to celebrate. Those in-kind services allow us to care for each patient at of a cost of just $1,300 per person, that’s all in... patient visits, labs, imaging, prescriptions, specialty care.  How does that stack up? According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the direct cost to treat a patient with one chronic disease in the US is $6,032 annually. That means we’re caring for 4.6 patients for every one patient receiving care through the traditional healthcare system. We’re proud of that efficiency, and I hope you, our community of supporters, are proud of your role in making this care a reality for our more than 1,000 patients.

Our volunteers and staff are downstairs in the Clinic ready to tell you more about the work they do throughout the year. I hope you will all take the time to visit with them. It’s a self-guided tour, so head down at your leisure.

Special thanks to Terry Wingfield for her photography services.