By Sean Avery
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — Families gathered for a harmonious afternoon of food, dancing, and kids’ activities outside One Community Health’s (OCH) Hood River clinic on Oct. 17, celebrating the nonprofit provider’s 40th year advancing healthcare equity in the Gorge.
Block party attendees heard from the organization’s first executive director, Colin Wood, who walked through its storied timeline; CEO Jennifer Griffith, who introduced board members from the recently established OCH Foundation; and Gladys Rivera, Hood River’s City Council president and soon-to-be mayor.
The event brought food and entertainment, including performances by Los Amigos de La Sierra and Torite del Patate, a Baila Sin Parar dance pop-up, tacos from T-Quite El Hambre, face painting, pumpkin decorations, arts and crafts, and a stuffed animal urgent care clinic.
OCH’s story began in 1985, when a group of advocates, including Wood and the organization’s first board chair, Manuel de Anda Gutierrez, sought to provide improved healthcare and community outreach for the Gorge’s migrant farmworkers and their children.
With the help of federal funding, the group hired their first physician, Dr. Tina Castañares, and opened La Clínica del Cariño in 1986. Castañares had moved to the Gorge from California the year prior and opened a small private practice downtown that charged $10 per visit. No one was turned away if they could not pay.
By 1988, nearly 50% of the patients who came through the door weren’t farmworkers, but other community members who needed affordable healthcare. Thus, the federal government designated La Clínica more broadly as a community health center, awarding additional funding.
La Clínica rapidly expanded, and through local support, grants, loans, and donations, a two-story clinic opened on Pacific Avenue in Hood River — the very same location as Saturday’s event, where the provider has laid its roots for decades.
Renamed in 2013 to reflect its commitment to serving everyone, OCH now serves over 30,000 patients in Hood River, Wasco, Skamania, and Klickitat counties, offering primary care, dental, behavioral health, walk-ins, pharmacies, and mobile/school-based clinics.
Castañares characterized the organization as a blend between individual and community care, providing specialized medical and behavioral services, while conducting outreach to understand collective needs. “It’s not just the doctor in the office; it’s looking at the community as a whole and how it fits together,” she said. “That means advocacy for low-income people — principally Latino people — other people of color, Indigenous people, and folks on Medicaid.”
Castañares said the 40th anniversary block party was “amazing,” appropriately celebrating the “growth of OCH ... and the types of folks who have brought it to this level,” she said.
For more information on OCH’s history, visit www.onecommunityhealth.org.
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