This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
BELLEFONTE — Long before sunrise, the line begins to form.
By 6 p.m. Friday, cars will start pulling into the parking lot at Bald Eagle Area Middle and High School. Some people will arrive with folding chairs and blankets. Others will bring their children. A few will stay through the night, waiting for doors to open at 6 a.m. the next morning. This is not for concert tickets or a Black Friday sale, but for a chance at basic health care.
That scene will unfold March 28 and 29 when Penn State’s Remote Area Medical clinic returns to the Bellefonte area, offering free medical, dental and vision services to anyone who walks through the door.
“This is their one time in the year that they’re able to receive any medical care,” said Pooja Pandya, a fourth-year biomedical engineering major at Penn State and executive sprint coordinator for the clinic. “A lot of patients check RAM schedules and travel with the clinics to wherever the closest one is.”
Remote Area Medical, or RAM, is a national nonprofit organization based in Tennessee with a mission to alleviate pain and suffering by hosting free pop-up health clinics across the country. Penn State operates a collegiate chapter that volunteers at clinics throughout Pennsylvania and neighboring states, while also serving as the host for the only RAM clinic in central Pennsylvania.
“We originally had our very first clinic in 2023 in Spring Mills, and now we shifted to Bellefonte,” Pandya said. “We just see that there’s a great need for health care in rural central Pennsylvania.”
That need cuts across income levels.
“Anybody can just walk in and is eligible for care. No IDs, anything like that,” said Josh Coleman, a Penn State junior studying pre-med and the clinic’s promotions coordinator. “You have to provide a name, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be verifiable or real. It’s just so they can track you in their system.”
Patients can receive medical services such as physicals, limited blood work and counseling. They can also choose either dental or vision care each day, with the option to return the following day for the other service.
“The dental side is one of the most popular,” Coleman said. “They offer cleanings, extractions and fillings, and they have portable radiograph machines, so the dentists have all the information they would have in their own office.”
On the vision side, patients can leave with a new prescription and a free pair of glasses made on site.
“They bring a truck up from Tennessee,” Coleman said. “You can walk out of the clinic with a new pair of glasses.”
Coleman said many patients fall into what he described as a “middle population” — those who earn too much to qualify for government assistance but still find employer-based insurance cost prohibitive, particularly for dental and vision care.
“That group kind of floats in between and sometimes gets neglected,” he said.
Last year, demand quickly outpaced capacity.
“By 10:30 in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday, we had to start cutting off the dental side,” Coleman said. “This year we’ll have more providers, so we’ll be able to see more people.”
Still, long waits are expected, and organizers are urging patients to come prepared.
“People don’t always realize how long the wait can be,” Pandya said. “Bring blankets, food and water. Some people are waiting four or five hours, and they bring their kids.”
The clinic will be open to patients Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29. Doors open at 6 a.m. both mornings, with services provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
While the clinic is hosted in Centre County, its reach extends far beyond it.
“Every other person I talked to was driving an hour to two hours,” Pandya said. “We had people coming from all across Pennsylvania and even Ohio.”
For organizers, the goal is consistency and making the Bellefonte clinic a reliable, annual resource rather than a one-time event.
“We’re planning on building something that’s repeatable,” Coleman said. “So people know every year that this service is going to be here.”
For those who line up overnight, that reliability can mean the difference between going another year without care and finally being seen.
