A Place to Turn: The People and Purpose Behind Coweta Samaritan Clinic
From lifesaving medical care to a listening ear, Coweta Samaritan Clinic has spent 15 years helping neighbors through life’s hardest moments. Through Operation Round Up, Coweta-Fayette EMC members are helping make that care possible.
Years before Coweta Samaritan Clinic opened its doors, Dr. Kay Crosby met a woman at a small medical screening held at a Newnan church. The woman’s blood sugar was well over 300. She had no idea she had diabetes.
When the pastor asked Crosby where the woman could get treatment, she realized there wasn’t a good answer. The emergency room was an option, but it wasn’t a place for the ongoing care she desperately needed.
For years, Crosby had traveled to other countries on medical mission trips with her church. But that day, she recognized a need for the same kind of care right here at home.
“All I can say is that God tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I think we need a free clinic for the uninsured,’” Crosby recalled. “And I think it opened the eyes of my heart to those in need at home.”
Fifteen years later, Coweta Samaritan Clinic provides free medical and dental care to hundreds of uninsured adults throughout Coweta County. Behind its doors are dedicated staff, volunteer medical professionals and a community of people who believe everyone deserves care.
And while the medical care is extraordinary, patients often remember the kindness the most.
More than a doctor’s office
Ask Douglas Bennett about Coweta Samaritan Clinic, and he’ll tell you about the people long before he tells you about the cancer.
He’ll tell you about Amy, who has stood beside him since the beginning. He’ll tell you about the smiling faces that greet him when he walks through the doors, the ones who made sure he had food, helped him through financial struggles and listened when the grief of losing his mother became too much to carry alone.
For a man who has endured more than his share of hardship, the clinic has become a place where he knows he is loved.
But his story has another part. One that might have ended very differently if the clinic hadn’t been there.
Bennett first arrived seeking help for a hernia. With dangerously high blood pressure, the medical team spent hours caring for him. Through the following treatment and referrals, he learned he had advanced prostate cancer, an illness he hadn’t even known he was living with.
The clinic connected him with specialized care, and he underwent surgery at no cost to him. And it didn’t stop there; Coweta Samaritan Clinic later helped him receive dental treatment after years of pain and hiding his mouth when he laughed. Today, he smiles without covering his face.
“I’m happy. I’m really happy,” Bennett said. “It took a lot out of my life to not want to speak or laugh, and I was hurting. I love the clinic, and they do a really good job.”
But when Bennett talks about what the clinic means to him, he keeps coming back to the people. The ones who listened, showed up and helped him find his footing when life felt overwhelming.
For him, the clinic is more than a place to receive treatment. It’s somewhere he feels safe, supported and at home.
Everyone deserves someone in their corner
Bennett is far from alone.
Each year, hundreds of people turn to Coweta Samaritan Clinic for help. Some have spent years putting their health aside while struggling to keep food on the table or a roof over their heads. Others have fallen on hard times without a dependable support system to help them through.
Executive Director Kelly Hines wishes more people understood that the clinic’s patients aren’t so different from anyone else.
“Many of us are fortunate to have family, friends or neighbors who —heaven forbid something terrible happen to us— would step in. Our patients don’t have that safety net, and it’s not for lack of trying,” Hines said. “They’re people just like you and I, but they just don’t necessarily have the resources and the connections that we have.”
They’re parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors. People doing their best with circumstances they never expected to face.
At the clinic, they’re welcomed without judgment. New patient appointments can last 90 minutes, giving providers time to listen and understand needs that may have gone unaddressed for years. Staff members also help patients navigate challenges beyond their medical conditions, from food insecurity to housing and transportation.
When asked to describe the clinic in one word, Hines became emotional.
Her answer was grace.
“Grace is so important, and we can all use it every day. I think it’s something as a society we lose track of how important it is to know that we’re all going through something,” Hines said through tears. “Everything we do here is centered around grace and just giving grace to others and hopefully getting it in return.”
Restoring more than a smile
For patients who have lived with dental pain or spent years hiding their smiles, the clinic’s growing dental program offers another kind of relief.
Dr. Tom Moynahan, a volunteer dentist, and Lynn Chavez, the clinic’s dental services coordinator and hygienist, have seen how proper dental care can change someone’s confidence and outlook on life.
Chavez recalled treating a woman in her 40s who had never been to the dentist and was embarrassed because she believed her teeth were unattractive and dark.
“I let her hold the mirror and watch while I cleaned her teeth. And at the end, she was crying and said, ‘I can’t believe it,’” Chavez said. “They were beautiful, white, healthy teeth. I love that she was just so grateful to have an appointment and be taken care of.”
Moments like those make the work so rewarding; and that spirit of service is reaching the next generation of healthcare professionals, too.
Through partnerships with local educational programs, dental assistant and dental hygiene students gain hands-on experience working alongside volunteers like Monahan and Chavez.
One student described how seeing professionals give their time so freely had inspired her to consider volunteering in her own future career.
“It’s like a domino effect,” said Amariyah Denson, a dental hygiene student at West Georgia Technical College, after a day working at Coweta Samaritan Clinic. “Seeing someone else do something good, now you want to do something good.”
The kindness that begins inside the clinic doesn’t necessarily stay there.
What a few cents can make possible
Caring for people this way takes an entire community.
In 2025, Coweta Samaritan Clinic reported providing at least $13.3 million in free healthcare services. It serves around 550 patients each year, many of whom need extensive care after going months or even years without treatment.
And as Crosby explains, “It’s a free clinic, but the care is not free.”
While medical professionals generously volunteer their time, everything from supplies and equipment to dental lab expenses requires financial support.
Coweta-Fayette EMC members are helping provide that support through Operation Round Up.
By rounding their monthly electric bills up to the nearest dollar, participating members contribute an average of just $6 a year. Those pennies are combined into grants that support local nonprofit organizations, including Coweta Samaritan Clinic, a longtime recipient of Operation Round Up funding.
“One of the unique things in the power of numbers is any amount given really does add up,” Hines says of even the smallest contributions. “The collective impact is truly phenomenal. When you think about the fact we’re able to get over $13.3 million in health care services out of an $800,000 budget, it does add up and it does make a difference.”
Those dollars help sustain a place where someone can receive medical attention, find relief from pain or simply sit across from another person who genuinely cares about what they’re going through. And that care reaches far beyond the clinic’s walls.
When someone becomes healthy enough to return to work, their family benefits. When a parent receives needed treatment, the people depending on them benefit. When someone finds support during a difficult season of life, that kindness can touch everyone around them.
It’s the kind of impact that’s difficult to measure, but impossible to overlook when you sit down with someone like Douglas Bennett.
Fifteen years ago, Crosby faced a question she couldn’t answer: Where could someone without access to healthcare turn for help?
Today, because of the generosity of an entire community, our neighbors have somewhere to go.
They have people who will listen, care for them and help them through whatever life has placed in their path.
Near the end of our visit, we asked Bennett to finish a sentence.
Because someone in my community chose to give, I can…
His answer was simple. “I can make it.”
And somewhere in our community, there’s another neighbor who deserves that same chance.
Be the reason someone has a place to turn.
You may never meet the person your generosity helps or know the struggles they’re facing. But for an average of just 50 cents a month, you can help support organizations that provide care, comfort and hope when our neighbors need it most.
Join Operation Round Up. Round up your bill. Lift up your community.