Philanthropy

Although it’s not my intention to toot my own horn I realize that at this point in my life I’ve become quite philanthropic.

A year ago when the Occupy movement started in SF I had my own private acupuncture business. I was charging $110 for the first visit and $85 for follow up visits. I’ve now learned that what I was running was a “boutique acupuncture clinic”. This is what most acupuncturists do. I called it a private practice.

When the Occupy movement began some people posted in my acupuncture school’s alumni group saying they were donating acupuncture to the people who were involved in the movement, the people who were living at the end of Market Street in San Francisco. I couldn’t wait to get down there. I lived over the GG Bridge, about 40 minutes to an hour away and I was working full time at 3 different offices but I made the time to go down there and donate acupuncture. I met other acupuncturists who were doing the same thing, traveling from the East Bay on BART, riding their bikes across town – whatever it took. I felt a part of and everyone I worked on was more than grateful. I was making a difference. And although I couldn’t camp out on Market Street I was giving back in a way that I could.

While I was in acupuncture school my dream was to open a community acupuncture clinic. Community acupuncture was started in Portland, Oregon by Lisa Rohleder and Skip Van Meter as “Working Class Acupuncture”. It rapidly became a movement, first called CAN (Community Acupuncture Network) now POCA (People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture). The model is to treat 5-7 patients per hour in one large room for $15 - $40 per treatment (no more than $20 for the minimum cost). My plan was to open a community clinic. Lisa and Skip teach classes on how to do just that. Somewhere along the way I lost my vision and somewhere along the way of losing it, I found it again.

So that’s what I have now, a community acupuncture clinic in San Rafael called Tao. I treat patients for $20 a treatment instead of $85, making acupuncture more affordable to everyone. After I donated my time at the Occupy movement last year some of the other acupuncturists who were also donating time asked for more organization. I started a google group and a google calendar for people to coordinate -- and it all fell through the cracks. Shortly thereafter winter came and the Occupy campers were disbanded, by force.

A year went by. And quite recently a woman found the google group and asked for help. On October 10^th, 2012 – 20 people were arrested in San Francisco for protesting, they needed help. A woman contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to donate acupuncture to some of the people who had been arrested. Since opening, Tao the new community clinic on September 10^th I’ve been working 12-15 hours a day. The other Tao acupuncturist, Michiel and I have given away 87 free treatments thus far. It feels good and it feel right. People need it and can’t afford it. I’m not making my rent yet and it’s true I won’t be able to keep going this way much longer but it is the business model for community, it is what community is all about and I’m confident that it’s sustainable as all of my other friends who are running successful community acupuncture clinics have shown me.

So before I said yes to helping the 20 people I posted the question on my school’s yahoo group asking for help and volunteers. There are hundreds of people in the group (many living in SF) and most of them have boutique clinics. Not one person responded. So after another 15 hour work day and 6 hours of sleep I jumped up this morning and grabbed Michiel and we both drove an hour to SF in order to donate time we barely have in order to help people who really needed it. People who are trying to make a difference in this world.

I’d like to tell their story in the next blog. But first a word on giving and philanthropy. How many people can look at themselves in the mirror and say “I helped someone today who needed help and couldn’t afford to pay for it”? How many people in this world will sacrifice their desire for money or their time to help others?

I belong to an organization where there is the need for “service”. There are hundreds of members in this organization yet all the service positions are held by a handful of people, the same handful. People who do service, always do service and people who don’t, never do. Which one of those types of people do you want to be? Selfless or self-serving? I know that I’m making a difference in the world when I help others, when I give selflessly. It’s never too late to make that difference.