Patterson Foundation continues their investment in Mission of Mercy events nationwide

The Colorado Mission of Mercy event took place again this fall in Denver. During this weekend-long event, the clinic saw 1,085 patients on Friday and Saturday.

“You can tell how many years a person has been part of COMOM by the number of stars they have,” said Conni Jones, CSR with the Denver dental branch. “Heather currently has 13 and I have 12.”

Conni, Heather Elliott, Rob Patterson, Elliott Carson and practically the whole dental branch volunteer each year for Colorado Mission of Mercy (COMOM) pop-up dental care. It’s a 125-chair clinic held once a year in a Colorado community, providing dental services to people who cannot afford or access care.

“I got involved in 2013 because there are CSRs here who were deeply involved in it, so they brought me along and, well, my husband and I have been hooked ever since.” So hooked are the volunteers that Joyce Wiersma, who retired after 41 years at Patterson, still volunteers and hasn’t missed a COMOM yet.

Conni says the events are a well-oiled machine.

“Getting everybody in the doors, getting them registered, getting them through dental triage, getting them into imaging – that all ran smoothly. It’s organized chaos. We have a lot of fun doing this. We look forward to seeing each other every year.”

To keep the mood light, Conni’s husband dresses up as a mascot every year; this year he was a bumblebee.

“He went throughout the clinic and took pictures with all the volunteers and the kiddos, just to make it fun. I mean we see groups of 10 to 12 people in a family at a time. And for the little ones, we show them that it’s not scary to come to the dentist – it’s fun.”

One of Conni’s favorite memories is of a three-year-old girl who wanted to brush the teeth of the T-rex her husband had dressed as that year. “We all smiled and cried at the same time because it was just so cute. You get memories after memories every year.”

It’s such a community event that this year, someone brought their two-week-old llama – for cuddles, not dental work. The group decided to name the llama COMOM.

Conni used all eight hours of her Patterson Volunteer Time Off (VTO) hours and donates her own time as well. This year, the Patterson Foundation has donated more than $20,000 to five Mission of Mercy events across the U.S., including a recent Q3 grant of $5,000 to COMOM.