Archive for category: HPC News

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Opening Doors Luncheon Health Partnership Clinic’s annual Opening Doors Luncheon—a powerful benefit for uninsured children and adults—is just a month away! This year, we’re thrilled to announce AdventHealth as our Presenting Sponsor, marking the debut of this prestigious new sponsorship level.

Join us on Thursday, April 24, 2025, at the Overland Park Convention Center, with doors opening at 11:30 a.m. and lunch served promptly at noon. The afternoon promises inspiring speakers, meaningful networking, delicious food and award presentations. Matt Stewart from FOX 4 News will serve as the emcee.

We’re especially excited to share an important update on our new prenatal services and our impactful partnership with Kansas City Women’s Clinic, an HCA Midwest Health Practice and Overland Park Regional Medical Center, showcasing how we’re expanding care for our community.

This is more than just a luncheon—it’s a chance to make a real difference. Everyone is welcome!

For more information, contact Hayward Lafferty, Director of Development, at hlafferty@hpcks.org or 913-276-7012.

Funds raised at the Opening Doors Luncheon are vital to our mission of providing high-quality, affordable, and accessible care to the communities we serve. Each year, we deliver comprehensive medical, dental, behavioral health, and substance abuse services on a sliding fee scale—regardless of a person’s ability to pay. With over 11,000 patients annually, more than half are uninsured, relying on Health Partnership for the critical care they couldn’t afford elsewhere.

Our goal is to raise $90,000 or more, and we need your help to make it happen! Your support will directly offset the cost of care for the uninsured and provide lifesaving services to those who need them most.

• Individual Tickets: $100 each
• Table for Ten: $1,000
• Sponsorship Opportunities Available!

To purchase tickets, become a sponsor, or learn more, contact Hayward Lafferty, Director of Development, at hlafferty@hpcks.org or call 913-276-7012.

By Thao Le, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

The holidays may be over, but in Vietnam, one of the biggest holidays (and my absolute favorite), Lunar New Year or Vietnamese New Year (Tết Nguyên Đán), will be celebrated on Wednesday, January 29. I said “on” but customs and activities begin several days before and last days after this traditional holiday.

“Tết” is short for “Tết Nguyên Đán” or “Tết Âm Lịch” – Vietnamese Lunar New Year. The word “Nguyên” means the beginning and “Đán” means the dawn. Tết marks the end of the year, and the beginning of a new one. It also means the start of the spring season in Vietnam. It’s almost like New Years!

In the days ahead of the holiday, it’s custom to clean the house. Symbolically, we remove the “bad things” and leave them behind with the old year. We then decorate the home to bring good luck in the new year. My parents like to decorate their home with flowers, a brand-new tear-off wall calendar, and red envelopes they hang from their house plants.

Traditionally, my parents will cook a feast that includes egg rolls, rice porridge, sticky rice, meat platter, salad and fried rice. Before we dig in, we light incense sticks and pray to our ancestors. We place the food-filled plates on the mantle, where pictures of my deceased grandparents are displayed. This invites them to celebrate the holiday with us and pray for luck in the upcoming year. Once the incense sticks burn out, we eat!

One of the traditional dishes of Tết is New Year’s cake, or bánh tét, which is made from glutinous rice filled with mung bean and pork. It is wrapped in banana leaf, then boiled. Once it is cooked, the banana leaf is removed and the bánh is sliced into wheels. My parents and I prefer to fry the cakes after they’re sliced to give them a crunchy texture!

During the holiday, it’s custom to gift children and younger adults red envelopes filled with money. The red color symbolizes good luck and prosperity and typically contains 2-dollar bills. These bills should be crisp and clean. Red envelopes can be gifted to adults too, not just children. I have three sisters (two older, and one younger), and usually my oldest sister gifts the rest of us money, and I gift my younger sister money. It’s a good thing I only have one younger sibling!

Another traditional new year activity is a gambling game called bầu cua tôm cá which translates to gourd, crab, shrimp, fish. It’s played with three dice, and each player wagers on what image the dices will land on. Often times the money received from red envelopes are used to wager!

With every Lunar New Year brings the next animal on the zodiac. There are a total of 12 zodiac signs, and each person’s birth year correlates with an animal and its associated personality traits. 2025 will be the year of the snake!

I hope this upcoming year brings all of you peace and prosperity.

Happy New Year, or Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Raising Dollars, Awareness for Uninsured Neighbors

On Saturday morning, Jan. 25, 2025, teams and individuals will don their winter hats and gloves to walk in Health Partnership Clinic’s first annual Snowflake Streak in Olathe, Kan. The peer-to-peer fundraising walk—which raises money for our low income and uninsured children and adults—will be held at the Olathe Community Center/Stagecoach Park. Walkers will enjoy pre and post walk activities including a short program, brisk walk around the 0.97-mile walking trail loop and breakfast. Joe Lauria, evening news meteorologist for FOX4, will serve as the event’s emcee.

The event goal is to raise $50,000. We invite area companies, vendors, schools, civic and church groups and the overall community to participate by being a sponsor, forming a team or both. To date, we have 23 teams and have raised more than $23,000! To learn how, visit us at hpcks.org/snowflake.

A heartfelt thank you to the following businesses who are supporting Snowflake Streak: Presenting-AdventHealth; Wintry-City of Olathe; Cozy Community-Enterprise Bank, Entrepreneurs Alliance, Olathe Health-Part of The University of Kansas Health System and The Purple Guys; Hot Cocoa and Coffee Bar-Blue Gurus and Frosty-Davidson Promotional, Farmers Bank of KC and Olathe Noon Optimists Club.

HOW IT WORKS?

You can walk as an individual, become a team captain and recruit others to be on your team, or you can join a team. There are individual incentives and team prizes, activities, breakfast after the walk, including a hot chocolate and coffee bar.

Team registration—which can be one person or more—is open until Thursday, Jan. 16. Although there is no fee to walk, we encourage individuals to raise $100 which will underwrite the cost of providing a rapid RSV, strep or flu test for two uninsured children.

Those raising $100 will receive a Snowflake Streak t-shirt. There are also other incentives including a hot/cold tumbler set, blanket shawl, fleece jacket, Garmin Activity Tracker, etc. The more you raise, the more incentives you earn! There will be prizes for Best Dressed Team and Individual Adult and Child, Top Fundraising and Most Team Members.

Come kick off the new year with a brisk walk for your own health and for others! To learn more about the walk or how to sponsor, click on the QR Code below.

By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach at Health Partnership Clinic

Health Partnership Clinic recently hosted the Entrepreneurs Alliance of Kansas City at our Olathe clinic. Amy Falk, the clinic’s CEO and I gave a presentation about what we do at HPC and the impact we are making. Members of the Alliance presented a $1,000 check to support our upcoming Snowflake Streak event as a Cozy Community Sponsor. The Snowflake Streak is a peer-to-peer fundraising event that will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2025 at the Olathe Community Center. All funds raised will help support our low income and uninsured neighbors in Johnson, Miami and Franklin Counties.

The Entrepreneurs Alliance is a group of entrepreneurs and professionals who enjoy speaking into and supporting the process and ideas behind building successful businesses. The group’s goal is to connect and educate within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in and around Kansas City.

We are very grateful to the Alliance members and to Jason Terry with Blue Gurus, who has provided website and blog support for the clinic for the last seven years, for introducing us to the group.

Sponsorships are still being accepted and teams are forming.

To learn more about the Snowflake Streak, hpcks.org/snowflake/ or call Catherine Rice at 913-730-3680.