In 1992, retired Dr. Jack McConnell founded Volunteers in Medicine Clinic (VIM Clinic) in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Doors opened in 1994, with a new philosophy in free clinics: the best in quality and personal service for each “neighbor and friend” (no one is referred to as a patient). Their 28,000 annual patient visits are serviced with love by 257 professional medical and 195 lay volunteers, providing a full-range of medical, dental, pediatric, and psychiatric help for the working poor of Hilton Head. Over 80 million Americans were without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003. That is approximately one in every three individuals. In the U.S., there are approximately 160,000 retired physicians, 350,000 nurses, and 40,000 dentists. Most are looking for a meaningful way to spend their retirement. Serving those in need is as therapeutic for the caregiver as it is for the care recipient.

Volunteers in Medicine Clinic

15 Northridge Drive

P.O. Box 23287

Hilton Head Island

SC 29925

Telephone: (843) 681-6612

http://www.vim-clinic.org

Dr. Jack McConnell, Volunteers in Medicine Clinic

When Dr. Jack McConnell retired to a luxurious home nestled on a golf course in Hilton Head, S.C. in 1989, he decided retirement wasn't all it was cracked up to be. “At that time I was 67. My golf handicap was going down, my waistline was going up, and I thought, 'can it be that I worked 35 years for this?'” Little could he have guessed that he was about to embark on the most rewarding phase of his life.

As a child, Jack was influenced by his father, a Methodist minister who never made over $150 a month. “Daddy never had a car. He said he couldn’t put his seven children through college and support Mr. Ford at the same time. But six of us graduated from college, four went on to get masters degrees, and three completed doctorates.” At dinner, the elder Mr. McConnell would ask each of his children: “What did you do for someone today?” As the years passed into decades, that question stuck with Jack. "What did I do for someone today?’…”