October 4, 2017
Ageless service
Around Town O’Fallon offering trips to Hannibal and haunted St. Louis P.3
Japanese Festival celebrates 40th anniversary P.3 City of St. Charles School District superintendent retires P.6
School
Stone Creek Elementary selected for Student Art Aficionado Program P.8
Business
Photo by Brett Auten Dr. Earl Schultz stands outside the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic located at 1039 S. Duchesne in St. Charles. Schultz volunteers at the free clinic, which helps to meet the health care needs of low-income, uninsured residents.
Retired doctor helps keep the lights on at a free clinic in St. Charles By Brett Auten You will find Volunteers in Medicine surrounded by a liquor store, a gun shop and a bar. Its front-door letters are barely visible from the street as it sits tucked away in a nondescript strip mall by Lindenwood University. When donations are what keep the lights on and the water running, you get by on what you can. After a career in medicine that was everything one would deem a success, Earl Schultz M.D., has bypassed the clubhouse lounge or the carefree travel that other colleagues have swaggered off to. Instead, Schultz – among his various charitable endeavors volunteers weekly for the last nine years to the Volunteers in Medicine clinic, located at 1039 S Duchesne Dr., in St. Charles. Schultz, 86, will be recognized at the St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System’s 15th annual Ageless Remarkable St. Louisan’s Gala, that celebrates the outstanding achievements of adults age 75-and-over. For 21 years, Volunteers in Medicine has pledged to serve the health care needs of St.
Charles and Lincoln County adult residents who are not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private health insurance and whose household income meets Federal Poverty Guidelines. They provide most medications at no cost to patients once prescribed by a physician at the clinic. Schultz is one of 66 retired doctors, nurses and clerks who make up the Volunteers in Medicine organization that has locations throughout the region and is a team committed to assisting a large population of the undeserved. “Many of our patients are fresh out of jail and that’s OK,” Schultz said. “We can usually help get them a job and get them a place to stay. St. Charles has the richest city property in Missouri and we have people in St. Charles sleeping under the viaducts, sleeping under the bridges or even in the winter sleeping in their cars. We’ll give them money for gasoline so at least they can turn their car on every hour and stay warm. It’s a tough game.” The recurring theme of poor lifestyle choices and questionable decision making are common patients coming through the clinic.
“We see people who are 350-pounds, they have diabetes, and they worry about why their back hurts, their knees hurt and their ankles hurt … I can tell you why,” Schultz said. “But they just look at you. And then of course they have diabetes but they don’t stay on their diet. We have people who have hypertension but skip their medicine and the real problem we have are those with bad lung disease, asthma, emphysema, who continue to puff. Opiates have always been our problem. I have fought with patients over those. I tell them you take them for no reason, you’re addicted. They insist that they have to have it.” Anita Hockett is a nurse and a clinical director for Volunteers in Medicine. She too was previously recognized by St. Andrew’s Resources for Seniors System. Hockett called Schultz easily approachable. “I think he is a good listener and has a wonderful, dry sense of humor that I know the nurses enjoy,” Hockett said. “He’s a very gentle sort.” Schultz, 86, retired in 2006 from private practice as a neurologist and psychiatrist See AGELESS page 2
Serving St. Louis, St. Charles, and Lincoln Counties | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 19 No. 40 | 636-379-1775
Housing program receives boost P.9
Movie
‘Wall Street’ thirty years later P.16
Weather FRIDAY Chance of Showers/Storms 75/58 SATURDAY Showers/Storms Likely 76/57 SUNDAY Chance of Showers/Storms 79/58 FirstWarn Weather
prepared by meteorologist Nick Palisch. For the latest updates visit www.facebook.com/nickswx.