Hi Everyone,
Just a reminder that Davidcpa (David Hastings) is hosting his first oral cancer screening on Saturday May 8th in his hometown of Gulfport, Florida. If you live in the area come and support him and represent the OCF!
Check event site for more details!
Good Luck David!!
Susan
Have a great day on Saturday David. Hope that lot's of people will be able to attend. Unfortunately it's a little far for me
Geez Gabe I thought I could count on you!
Walgreens has already changed their electronic billboard to read:
FREE ORAL CANCER
SCREENING
SAT 10 TO 2
I estimate that I have gotten 90% of the local businesses to put a poster we made up in their store front window. I also have made a list of the ones that didn't! I mean what possible excuse could one have for NOT displaying a city sponsored free cancer screening??? Please please help me understand that one!
We have our Art Walk tonight which is kinda like a mini mardi gras for the Art & Waterfront District. Jerry attended one but it was freezing (for us anyway). Shame he didn't get to experience one when the weather is normal. Anyway we will be out in force handing out mini fliers and talking it up.
Hey David,
Your definition of freezing is far from mine. Sking at 10 below is freezing.
Trying to explain the lack of cooperation with signs is like trying to explain how the Rays can do so poorly one year and so well the next.
I want to wish you good luck and I too wish I were closer in order to be a part of what I am sure will be a very successful event.
You rock, my friend.
David,
Wishing you success on your screening event tomorrow. I look forward to reading all about here.
Anita
Good luck with your event today. Im sure its going to be very successful.
Well I was up at 5am to get the restaurant crew out to the Saturday Morning Market and met the City crew at 7 to begin the set up. I moved those damn tents 4 different times to get the right configuration!! Anyway by 9 am we had our first sign in and by 10 when I opened the gates so to speak we had 35 seated and patiently waiting. We were telling people at this time that with 3 dentists we ESTIMATED the wait time to be 30 mins. WRONG!!! it was more like an hour plus! We kept a full "wait seating" the entire time and we even told people they could wait in Walgreens and we had someone there who we would call and they had access to Walgreens in store intercom. We eventually even let people put their cell # down and we called them when they were close. It was just sooo muggy and I only had around 35 seats under tent.
Temps were in the high 80's and the humidity was bad to say the least. By 10:30 my Dr Thee's shirt was soaked. Everybody kept their thankful spirits. I made jokes all day, made them applaud the dentists and we even had a lady waiting sing songs to keep everyone in good spirits. Only in Gulfport.
I made notes of improvements for next year.
The Regional Manager of Walgreens was on hand. Walgreens was GREAT. They set up their own tent and gave away ice cold water and a Walgreens "green" shopping bag filled with stuff. They also called in a Pepsi cart that sold hot dogs, drinks and chips for a dollar each with all the proceeds to come to the OCF (my suggestion). Brian don't expect much because I didn't see many people buying since they all wanted clean teeth!!
RE the Regional Manager. He approached me towards the end and was so impressed with the public's interest that he told me next year that he would bring in one of their 14 nationwide diagnostic trucks that perform 8 different free diagnostic tests including blood pressure, cholesterol, bone density, etc and we would make a much larger event out of this thing. We agreed on April next year (after the 15th for sure) and exchanged cards.
Only bad thing was I didn't think through that 10 to 2 thing well enough. By 1 my dentists were pooped and looking forward to stopping at exactly 2 but we already had a waiting line that would possibility take them past 2 so I had to make a decision to stop allowing people to sign up. Therefore not only did we have to turn away at least 30 people we had to explain that 10 to 2 meant 10 to 2 to the dentists not the public. Only one couple who showed up at 1:50 pm and said they traveled 80 miles one way complained but they more than made up for all the ones that didn't complain!! They made a scene so much so that someone who had waited over an hour gave the husband her spot. Made me mad but in the end all the dentists stayed overtime to handle everyone on the list including the lady that gave up her spot.
At the end we screened an incredible 158 and 9 were given referrals. That meant, on average, each dentist saw a patient every 4.6 minutes!! Two took a small lunch break with food provided by the world famous Habana Cafe, of course, and my Dr Thee worked straight thru and took his lunch home.
I would like the OCF to send each of my vols a letter and I also plan to get the City to do the same.
I can't wait till next year!!
Congratulations on a successful event! Every year turnout will get bigger as more people hear of it, and you'll figure out what works and what doesn't. Plus, looks like Walgreens was impressed with your effort. It's wonderful that you'll have their sponsorship. That will take you a long way. Nice job, David!
Anita
Great Job! and as you can see, a lot of work. So next year you need 6+ doctors...... run it longer, and have the doctors come and go in shifts. Call the office on Monday and talk with Megan and give her your list of volunteers, we'l get letters out to them right away.
We don't routinely get donations at our screening events as they are mostly in underprivileged areas, though now that you mention it, we could put a donation box out and see what happen. And of course if you are going to give something away, and feed them, you do that AFTER the screening. Chunks of hot dogs between their teeth won't matter then!!
I put the donation envelopes out on a table along with the brochures, my cards and pins. I mentioned it a few times to my waiting captive audience and I did get one donation. I haven't looked inside to see how much yet but I could have paid more attention to that aspect.
Yeah I've already decided on more dentists and shifts and a longer time and advertising a stop time 1 hour less than what I tell the dentists. I also didn't need as many vols even as busy as we were. My dentist, Dr Thee has even offered his office next year but I still like the visability of Walgreens and there is no way we could handle the parking at his office. Walgreens entire lot was full all day and cars were parking along the side streets. Now if I can just get Walgreens to spring for a large air conditioned tent!! Never say never, lol.
In my haste to put out a wrap up of Saturday's very successful screening I forgot to mention 3 groups of people, without which, this wouldn't have been a success.
I want to give a HUGE APPLAUSE to all the volunteers, all the Staff of this great City and to all the people from the Oral Cancer Foundation that helped!!!
Wait till next year, that's all I got to say!!
Nice job David!!!!
I knew it would be a big success
David, great job!! As I said in the email I sent, you have to have the first event under your belt to see what works and what doesn't. You are now a pro and next year will be much easier because you now know what it takes to put this on. I am planning one here in my hometown for the summer.
Thanks so much again for doing this. As I said before, if we can get all the OCF members to do a screening like this, what a way to make a difference and get the message out!!
Take care
Susan
It was fun. I enjoy helping others and everyone, sans the one couple from hell, was really appreciative.
David,
As I said on Facebook, you are amazing. It is incredible that you put this together in such a short time. You rock.
I did a screening for 3 days at a dental convention and didn't come close to that number.
I hope you don't think that I didn't notice that you were complaining about the heat and humidity. I'll bet you wished you were up north where it was nice and cool.
Thanks Jerry,
I think 158 in really 3 hours of registration time is good but I really don't have any comparables.
Now I wasn't complaining about the heat and humidity for me because I LOVE IT but I did feel for all those that don't like it as much as me. In the morning the sun was coming in the front of the tents so I put up "walls" to block the sun and heat for the dentists tents. We also were able to put our waiting chairs under the tent and even were able to add more chairs out the back since that was still shady. By mid day that all changed as the sun moved over head and those poor people in the back were now in the sun and they were scrambling to take a chair in the shade vacated by a finally called patient.
By the way I e mailed a bunch of pics to Susan so they may be up for viewing somewhere but I haven't found them yet.
Hey David, the pics are on the OCF facebook page!!!
Yeah Sue, Catherine posted that link 6 hours ago in the post right before yours but I'm glad you're on top of things. lol
Thanks Susan, for posting David's pictures on Facebook.
I really enjoyed seeing his "knobby knees".
Looking good in shorts, David!
Meagan Cannon at the OCF office controls the OCF facebook page... and if you send things directly to her they usually get up the same day.
Funny David!!!! I try to be on top of things, I am not always perfect (but in my head I am!! lol)
Catherine,
ALL those pics and your only comment is knobby knees?? lol
Catherine,
You should see them in person!!!!!
Calm down Jerry, I didn't know you were that thrilled about my knees! You've got way too much time on your hands now.
Notice it took me a week to get back to the forum. Been very busy getting my house ready to be put on the market. It goes up early next week. We made a sudden decision to move and it has been crazy here. Far from too much time on my hands,the last 2 1/2 weeks.
I didn't say I was thrilled to see your knees, I was just being kind.
Thank the Rays for me for keeping the Yankees at bay.
Like every other team here in our small market Tampa Bay, I keep holding my breath hoping they can continue to do good. So far it's pretty amazing.