UP AND RUNNING AGAIN, ST. VINCENT DE PAUL COMMUNITY PHARMACY SEES A HOPEFUL FUTURE

Nearly a year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked the Gulf Coast in the nation’s worst natural disaster, many of the affected communities are still struggling to reconstruct their lives. Since last September, Operation USA has awarded $700,000 to community-based clinics and other community groups, like the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy that are providing vital services to hundreds of thousands of evacuees and to residents returning home. We will continue to support our partners and their services as they continue the immense task of rebuilding.

In September 2005, Operation USA was contacted by the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy for assistance. During Hurricane Katrina, the community pharmacy in East Biloxi, Mississippi was flooded with 9 feet of water in the tidal surge. The pharmacy suffered extensive damage to its 2,300 sq ft space, including its waiting room furniture, filing cabinets with hundreds of patient records, computers and over $300,000 worth of medicine.

For seven years, the non-profit St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy was the Coast’s only provider of free prescription pharmaceuticals to the needy. The pharmacy operates with volunteer pharmacists who donate their time and skills and an all-volunteer staff, including its executive director.

Following Hurricane Katrina, the pharmacy needed to relocate its services to another part of Biloxi and purchase a used office trailer. Operation USA seed money set the process in motion and provided an emotional boost to the volunteers who were overwhelmed at the enormity of the tasks ahead of them. Roughly a third of the volunteers had suffered major damages to their own homes or lost property. With Operation USA funds, the St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy could begin the process to repair damages in its 2,200 sq. ft. trailer, wire the space, install a handicap accessible restroom, air conditioning and remodel part of the trailer as a dispensing pharmacy.

In January 2006, Operation USA staff visited the nearly completed pharmacy. The new space was almost set to open but there was no furniture. Operation USA committed more funding to fully furnish the pharmacy. A month later, volunteers returned to open the doors of the new St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy and reconnect with its former patients. In its first ten weeks, the pharmacy dispensed over $100,000 worth of medications. Today it is operating 4 days a week, busy enrolling new patients and, as temporary medical clinics close along the Gulf Coast, the pharmacy has experienced a jump in patient enrollees.

To read a personal letter from Theresa Pavlov, Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy, to Operation USA, please click here.