By JAMIE A. HUNT
FOR THE RECORDER November 21, 2011
Ten families from Porterville and surrounding communities took advantage of the free annual screening clinic offered by the Fresno Tehran Shriners at Sierra View District Hospital on Saturday, from 9 a.m. until noon.
Tom Crosno, the Recorder for the Shriners organization, talked to children and their parents while he compiled paper work from preliminary screenings to submit to the board of medical doctors at the Sacramento Shriners hospital.
“If the doctors believe they can help a child,” said Crosno, “they will set up an appointment for the family in Sacramento. If the doctors can help, they will start their procedures. All assistance remains free to the parents or families.”
Most attendees on Saturday had been referred to the clinic by their local schools, a few from Terra Bella and Woodville. Refreshments available for families to enjoy while they waited at the clinic.
Crosno and his wife, Elaine, have been involved with the Shriners from 1977. “They do about six screening clinics a year at local hospitals”, said Crosno. This year they have done four or five, because Tom, a tall vigorous 70-year-old, is recovering from a recent heart attack.
One family, Rick Newman, and his daughter, Cheyenne, came late to the clinic. As he talked to Elaine, he and Cheyenne were sent straight through for her preliminary screening and interview with Tom, who filled out the appropriate paperwork for the doctors.
Because the clinic did not have a medical doctor available on Saturday, Elaine explained that the Shriners were only doing paper work to submit to the doctors in Sacramento.
According to Kurt Jauss, the elected Shriners Potentiate, the organization created their Children’s Hospitals in the 1920’s to originally help children with polio, and through the years they have continued to help children get treatment and recover from many more diseases.
“The goal of the Shriners is to take care of children from birth to 18,” said Jauss, “You look at those kids and realize that’s who you are helping. And all those small aches and pains that you have become insignificant.”
The Shriners organization has become a medical service group with 22 hospitals across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Their efforts are entirely funded by donations, and the medical intervention and operations they provide at the hospitals is superior.
“I promise to deliver to these children,” said Jauss, whose father drove for UPS for 46 years. “If we can help families, we are here.” Another motto he said is, “You never stand taller, than when you bend down to help a child.”
Newman had sought help years before for his daughter, but was told that the Shriners could not do anything.
But when Jauss spoke with him about Cheyenne, he told him that the Shriners had been treating cleft palate for the last five to six years, since 2006. So it is a fairly new treatment.
Jauss is the Shriners Potentiate for one year, and said, “If any child comes to us with a problem that will not allow them to have a full life, we will take care of them. Our aim is to give a child a better life.”
“Ten families today. This clinic is a good help to the community, and we appreciate the help from Sierra View Hospital,” said Crosno, “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Later in the day, over the phone Rick Newman spoke. He said, “My daughter Cheyenne, was born with a cleft lip.”
“The Shriners have given me and my family a little more hope about getting the procedures done that will help my daughter. We will hear back from the doctors in four to six weeks, if they can help Cheyenne.”
“I guess it is totally up to the doctors in Sacramento.”
Cheyenne needs to have a bone graft before she is 16, according to her father, and will need braces and a nose reconstruction.
As a single parent and veteran, Newman is trying to get healthy families insurance coverage for Cheyenne. But he says with medical prices so high, it is a struggle.
“The Shriners have helped a lot of people,” said Newman with emotion, “and I hope they can help my daughter.”
For more information about the Shriners clinics and hospitals, call the Tehran Temple in Fresno at 559-251-1991.
Kurt Jauss removes a sign after the Shriner's clinic on Saturday at Sierra View District Hospital in Porterville.
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