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Gala planning promotes community involvement

GALA LEADERS — Dr. Kaitlyn Pitchok, center, is assuming the role of chair of the Ohio Valley Health Center's 17th-annual fundraiser gala on April 30 at St. Florian Event Center in Wintersville With her are gala co-chairs Suzanne and Dr. Thomas R. Brown in one of the exam rooms at the center, located at 423 South St., Steubenville. Pitchok has taken over ownership of Brown's dental practice. -- Janice Kiaski

STEUBENVILLE — For Dr. Kaitlyn Pitchok, it’s a season of firsts.

Not only will the local dentist be attending the Ohio Valley Health Center’s upcoming gala for the first time, but the 32-year-old Weirton resident is chairing that key fundraiser for the facility located at 423 South St., Steubenville, whose mission is to provide high-quality health care to uninsured and underinsured individuals and families in the Ohio Valley, regardless of their ability to pay.

Wednesday, Pitchok visited the health center for the first time, her lunch-break nickel tour led by Dr. Thomas R. and Suzanne Brown, her professional mentors who have been volunteers with the center and who are working alongside Pitchok as gala co-chairs and as an older generation encouraging the younger generation to be community-minded.

“Wow!” was the more-than-once reaction from Pitchok as she made her way through the state-of-the-art center that offers a variety of free general medical care help, from colorectal cancer screenings and lab services to counseling and chronic and acute care services.

“People need to come and see what it’s all about,” Suzanne said of the health center that she and her husband have been involved with and supportive of for many years, beginning when the former Jefferson County Fourth Street Health Center opened in 2006. It offered rudimentary services in its infancy compared what now is available at its present location, which it has been in since January 2019.

The center’s 17th-annual fundraiser gala will be held April 30 at St. Florian Event Center in Wintersville with this year’s theme being “Hats Off to OVHC — Hope, Health and Healing.” The gala has a Kentucky Derby theme and starts with the “Mint Julep” hour at 5 p.m. with prizes for the best dressed couple, the most creative hat and the best all-around hat.

The dinner begins at 6 p.m. with a program featuring special awards for Value Leader Pharmacy as the community partner; Jerry John posthumously as the medical honoree; and Clint Quillen as the volunteer of the year. Tickets are $65 per person. The deadline for tickets is April 21. For information, to purchase tickets or to be sponsor, visit ovhealthcenter.org or call (740) 283-2856.

A graduate of Weir High School, Pitchok completed her undergraduate degree from Bethany College and went on to earn her doctorate of dental surgery from the West Virginia University School of Dentistry. In 2019, she joined the practice of Dr. Thomas R. Brown, whose career spans more than 40 years, and includes his wife, and took over ownership in 2021 of the business at 444 Frank P. Layman Blvd., Wintersville. The Browns will continue to have a presence in a part-time capacity there until their retirement at year’s end.

The Browns are no strangers to the center or the gala, having co-chaired it in the past.

“We were volunteers at the Jefferson County Fourth Street Health Center then, and we’d come in did some oral screenings and dental work, and we’d bring some patients out to our office and do services at no charge for some people,” Suzanne explained, noting Tom served on the center’s board at the time.

Suzanne said she has been encouraging Pitchok to be involved in the community, too, “to give back to the community because a lot of youth don’t do that any more. I think we need to encourage our youth to help the community,” Suzanne said.

The center is something the area needs, according to Tom.

“This area historically has been underserved in the past, and I think that to meet the needs of the community, it serves a vital role,” he said. “We have a high incidence of various morbidity such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and this is a part of an important asset to see those patients and screen patients.”

Pitchok noted that working with the Browns and witnessing their community involvement has been inspiring.

“They’ve definitely been showing me the way, and what they’ve been doing I want to continue with our practice. I love that he has helped out down here, and now we take care of their patients if they need dental needs up at our office, too,” Pitchok said, explaining why that’s important.

“I guess I learned going to WVU being in a rural area down there, we had a clinic like this for dentistry and it was nothing like this. They didn’t get the privileges that they have here, so I think I would like to continue that just to give them what I think they deserve to have,” she said.

Pitchok said she wasn’t sure what to expect in visiting the center for the first time, what it would be like.

“Patients around here are very lucky to have something like this,” she said. “It’s a happy surprise to see what it’s like.”

She guessed that young people her age probably aren’t aware the center exists.

“I think that’s kind of a tragedy,” she explained.

As for chairing the gala, Pitchok said she loves the theme.

“Suzanne told me how she ran it back in the day, and I kind of followed in her footsteps, and she is there to be my role model for any questions I have,” she said. “It’s been really fun” she said of the planning and preparing for next month’s event the includes a committee of volunteers.

Ann Quillen is the executive director of the health center that in its history has served more than 4,000 individual patients of the Ohio Valley, providing more than 23,000 medical visits all at no cost to the patient.

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