NBC12 News, Weather Sports, Traffic, and Programming Guide for Richmond, VA | Hundreds of homeless gather for free medical services

Hundreds of homeless gather for free medical services

By Sunni Blevins - bio | email
Posted by Phil Riggan – email

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – Hundreds of homeless or low-income people gathered at the Greater Richmond Convention Center to get help with some much-needed services like medical care. It's the project's third year.

Everyone who came to the event was paired with a personal volunteer who took down their personal information and found out what they needed most.

“It's things that you need that we don't have--not only me, but this whole line, and it's great for the community to share with everybody, you know that's a great thing,” said Ronald Ragland, who arrived at the convention center at 4 a.m. to make sure he didn't miss out on anything. He tells us he never expected to be in this situation.

“It just happened, you know you don't never know--sometimes you are just a paycheck from being homeless, just one paycheck,” he said.

With everything from medical and dental care to free haircuts to help with housing and employment services under one roof, Ronald had one word to describe this event.

“It's a miracle--a real, true miracle.”

Event host Homeward is the Greater Richmond region's planning and coordinating agency for homeless services. Organizers say it's heart-warming to see all these people, some of whom are living on the streets, getting the help they need.

 “This is one of my favorite days of the year because in a single day we do what we try to do every day of the year, which is change how our community responds to homelessness,” said Homeward executive director Kelly King Horne.

Once people are through with the services part of this day, they can stop off here and get some much-needed clothing for the future. 

(c) 2009. WWBT, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.