[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 7446-7447]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HONORING ROTACARE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JARED HUFFMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 3, 2017

  Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the RotaCare Bay 
Area San Rafael Clinic's 20th Anniversary of caring for, and 
protecting, the people of Marin County.
  The RotaCare clinics of the Bay Area are important contributors to 
their communities' health. Starting with one clinic on the former 
Agnews State Hospital site, there are now twelve clinics located 
throughout the Bay Area in Concord, Daly City, Gilroy, Half Moon Bay, 
Monterey, Pittsburg, Richmond, San Jose, San Leandro, San Rafael, and 
Santa Cruz.
  Their mission, ``to provide free medical care in the Bay Area for 
those who have the greatest need and the least access,'' has been a 
guiding tenet to the many volunteers and philanthropic donors who 
support the program. RotaCare assists anyone in need and is known for 
their attempts to alleviate costly and time consuming emergency room 
visits for the uninsured.
  My district's own San Rafael clinic was founded in 1997 by Mike 
Osborne, Sharron

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Newton, Gus Catechi and Peter Pattengill, members of the Rotary Club of 
Marin Sunrise. The Rotary District theme that year was homelessness, 
which sparked the idea of starting a free clinic in San Rafael. At 
first, the clinic was held once a week at Ritter House in San Rafael, 
but as the clinic grew it was a forced to find a larger space. In 2003, 
the clinic moved to Kaiser Permanente's Downtown San Rafael Office and 
expanded their hours to twice a week to accommodate the growing need of 
free, quality health care that still continues today.
  Mr. Speaker, the RotaCare clinics' commitment to providing 
accessible, free health care to those who would otherwise go without 
care keeps our community thriving with healthy, active people. It is 
therefore fitting to honor and thank RotaCare Bay Area's San Rafael 
clinic for 20 years of success in adhering to the mission of providing 
health care to those who are most in need and to offer best wishes on 
many more years of important work.

                          ____________________