for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com AUGUST 8, 2013 • The Courier SUN 9 Doctors of the World coming to Rockaway BY MAGIE HAYES mhayes@queenscourier.com Doctors of the World are coming local – to the Rockaways, intending to boost the area’s health care. The international network of doctors has locations in 79 countries, 14 in the U.S. and recently signed a lease to open a free primary health care clinic at 2-30 Beach 102nd Street. “The Rockaways have a severe shortage of health care services available to them,” said Noah Barth, program ©2013 Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. How to save money on your energy bill without reading it in the dark. If you’ve only changed the light bulbs in your house, you’ve just scratched the surface of our energy-saving tips. We’ve got 100 more ideas: from cleaning your filters to putting your A/C unit on a timer. We even have energy calculators, so you can estimate how much those changes can save you. For details, visit us at conEd.com and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. We’ll help you save energy, money and maybe even the planet. coordinator. “It also has a long history of being excluded or not given enough attention from city and state resources.” At the clinic, Doctors of the World will provide free service to the public, including the uninsured, thanks to a reliable donation foundation. “Health care is a fundamental right,” Barth said. “We see our work as filling a gap.” St. John’s Episcopal has been the lone hospital left on the peninsula since the closing of Peninsula Hospital in April 2012. The community at large has voiced the need for more health care facilities. At St. John’s, the emergency room at times has gotten overrun with patients, but “on the whole we have been doing okay,” said hospital officials. Post-Sandy complications and the summer’s heat wave have brought in patients with lung issues, including asthma and COPD. In the Rockaways, the high concentration of seniors and public housing facilities creates a high need for services that the community is not getting, including storm-related treatment, Barth said. “There is a chronic shortage of a lot of things,” he said. Additionally, Doctors of the World has done community outreach to determine just how to cater to their future patients. “We want to try and really understand from the community level what the situation is, what the needs are and what the community wants, as opposed to telling them what they want,” Barth said. There is no definitive timetable as to when the clinic will open, but is projected to open within a couple of months. SOMBER MEMORIAL BY ZACHARY KRAEHLING AND MAGIE HAYES Mourners gathered for a candlelight vigil at the Sikh Cultural Society in Richmond Hill to remember the shooting attack on a Wisconsin Sikh temple just a year ago. Wade Michael Page, who has been called a white supremacist, walked into the temple as worshippers prepared for Sunday services and opened fire. Six people were killed. Assemblymember David Weprin stood with the Richmond Hill Sikh community and said, “You are not mourning alone” and that all Americans continue to be “enriched” by the nation’s religious diversity. “This community is about love of country and spirituality,” said one man. “The goal is prayer. God’s name is love, and without love there is nothing.” THE COURIER/Photos by Zachary Kraehling Mourners gathered in Richmond Hill to remember the mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple one year ago.
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