ACORN Clinic Executive Director Tina Lloyd spoke to the Keystone Heights Rotary Club on June 11, telling the Lake Region civic group how her nonprofit delivers dental care to underprivileged residents.
Lloyd also described her role in leading other Union County community groups, including United for a Cure, the Union County Impact Initiative, and the Lake Butler Rotary Club.
Loses $83 on each patient
Lloyd said that when she was hired to lead the Brooker-based dental clinic in May 2024, the board told her the nonprofit needed money, and it was her job to find it.
The new hire responded that since the clinic was approaching its 50th anniversary, a celebration fundraiser would be her first major project.
She said the nonprofit set a goal of raising $50,000 for the night, and the event netted $56,000.
“When I do a dinner,” she told the Rotarians, “I’m going to think strategically. I don’t just go out and sell tables for whatever amount. We got a big poster board and wrote how many tables there would be at the event.”
Lloyd added that she and her team then set financial goals for each segment of the fundraiser.
She also said the group’s total cost for the event was $1,700.
“Belle Oaks Barn in Brooker offered the venue space for free,” she said. “I went to Piesanos in Gainesville, and Piesanos provided the meal for 200 people for free, and they even offered to do it annually.”
Lloyd said fundraising is critical to the clinic’s mission because it loses $83 every time a patient walks into its facility.
The program is staffed by fourth-year dental students from the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry and Santa Fe College dental hygiene students. One staff dentist oversees the work of the students.
The executive director said availability is one reason her clinic draws from such a wide area. While there are other free dental clinics in North Central Florida, few have appointments available. The ACORN Clinic schedules appointments around its volunteer students’ schedules before each semester.
“I mean, a lot of these dental offices are (booked) out like a year,” she said. “We book for one quarter after we get the student schedule. So, right now, we’re booked up until August. When we get the new schedule, people start calling in August, and we fill the schedule with people that are on the waiting list.”
Lloyd said grant writing has been another funding avenue. She recently received a $6,000 award from Wawa and a $25,000 grant from the Jacarlene Foundation.
“I’m applying everywhere,” she said.
Making an impact
Lloyd told the Rotarians she is an Alachua County Safety Net member and thought Union County should organize a similar effort. She added that the Alachua group is centered around healthcare and felt that a parallel organization in her home county should expand beyond that focus.
“So, my vision for the Union County Impact Initiative was to have a space where people can come and network and collaborate, all the different businesses, and then also to use it as an opportunity for us to talk about the needs in the county, whether it’s healthcare, food, economical, whatever, disparities that we could talk about as a group and identify those and then collaborate with how to change it.”
Lloyd said representatives from 85 organizations attended the inaugural meeting of the Union County Impact Initiative.
“When you look around, you drive through Union County,” she told the civic group, “You say, oh, we might have 20 businesses. It was amazing. We had people come from the Bradford Health Department, and we had trucking companies and insurance companies.”
Lloyd said one attendee from a Jacksonville-based managed care plan wrote a $2,500 check on the spot and promised to be at all future initiative meetings.
“So, that’s how powerful that was,” she added.
Lloyd said that since the initiative is still in its early stages and not yet legally formed, the Lake Butler Rotary Club is officially running the operation.
The organizer said that as part of the effort, she applied for a $350,000 Healthy Communities grant from Florida Blue, listing ACORN Clinic and the Union County Impact Initiative as participants.
“Union County is the smallest county in the state, and we’re known to be the most unhealthy,” she said. So, we want to change that.”
United for a Cure
Lloyd next talked about a cancer support organization she and three other Union County women launched four years ago: United for a Cure.
She said that the foursome turned over proceeds to the American Cancer Society after the group’s first fundraiser.
“The following year, we decided let’s do something different,” Lloyd recalled. “Let’s make it our own. Let’s keep the funds in the county and support the residents of Union County. So, with that, we started the second year, and since then, we have raised close to $180,000.”
Lloyd said United for a Cure pays for any cancer screenings.
“The second thing that we do is we provide financial assistance,” she said. “We give $3,000 to anyone that’s in active treatment. “They can use it however they choose. They can use it for rent, mortgage, they can use it for gas, they can use it for phone bills, medical co-pay, or whatever it may be. Because anybody who gets diagnosed with cancer, it is not something you expect.”
Lloyd said the group’s primary event is a fundraising walk on the last Saturday in September. She added that the organization receives a lot of support from Bradford County.
Lake Butler Rotary Club
Lloyd next talked about her role in the Lake Butler Rotary Club, of which she is the current treasurer.
She said that when she joined the club three years ago, there were some negative impressions of the group in the community.
“And I think a lot of it was because they thought that Rotary was just a place to go sit down and have a free meal with chicken and a lot of old men talking,” she said.
Lloyd said the club began overcoming that negative impression by recruiting new members.
“We have a lot of young, spirited people who are ready to get going,” she said. “It actually encouraged the other members who have been members for years to really get involved.”
“I’m a firm believer that if you’re sitting in the chair, there’s something you can do,” the club treasurer continued. “You can register somebody, you can make a call, you can go drop off a flyer, whatever it is, you can do it.”
Lloyd added that the club’s cash reserves have quadrupled over the three years since she has been in the club.
“And that’s after paying $15,000 for our fireworks,” she said. “We were able to hand out 20 scholarships, including eight to Union County High School students.”
It’s about the ask
Lloyd then talked about the club’s annual fundraiser, which netted over $80,000 in one night.
She said she and club President Alexandra Pritchett modeled the event on the successful ACORN Clinic 50th Anniversary celebration.
“We have worked together,” she recalled, “and it’s about the ask. If you don’t ask, they can’t support it. Union County has a lot of giving people. I am just amazed at the money that gets put into Union County.”
Lloyd wrapped up her talk by recounting a phone call she had made earlier in the morning.
She said the City of Lake Butler needed beach sand to replenish Lakeside Park and was seeking a $2,500 monetary donation from the Rotary Club to fund the effort.
Lloyd instead called Vulcan Materials in Keystone Heights, which offered to provide the city with seven truckloads of sand valued at over $5,000.
“So again,” she told the Lake Region group, “If you don’t ask, they can’t support it.”
