Mission of Mercy Prepares for Event in Moorhead

North Dakota and Minnesota dentists and nearly 1,000 volunteers are gearing up for the Mission of Mercy event.

The Mission of Mercy provides free dental care of almost any kind to 2,000 patients over the course of the two days.

Volunteers are hard at work at the Concordia College Memorial Auditorium to turn the open floor into a 100 chair dentist’s office.

For most of these workers, this isn’t their first rodeo.

“Yeah this is my fifth one so it really comes together rather quickly. It’s just so awesome to see just an open floor space then turn into this large dental clinic. It’s really rewarding to see how quickly it goes up,” says volunteer Carmelo Cinqueonce.

Quickly is an understatement.

The volunteers accomplish the outstanding feat in just one day.

“Why are they doing this?” you may ask.

All of these people have come to provide free, that’s right, no questions asked 100% free dental care to as many people as they can over the course of the next two days.

“This event is to get rid of pain and infection, not a dental home necessarily but just to help people who fall through the cracks sometimes,” says Chair of Minnesota Mission of Mercy Dr. Alejandro Aguirre.

During the next two days, the dentists will treat as many as 2,000 patients and still not be able to see everyone that comes out.

Care is given on a first come first serve basis.

Now patients won’t begin being admitted until 5:30 am tomorrow but as you can see, people have already begun lining up.

The first person here is Teresa Young, she’s traveled all the way from Stillwater.

She can’t afford dental insurance but thanks to this event, she can have her teeth taken care of for the first time in years.

“I am very grateful and very thankful that there are people who care enough to be able to do this and take the time and are willing to do this for people they don’t even know,” Young says.

One might ask what inspires the volunteers to keep coming back year after year.

“You know we call that a MOM moment, a Mission of Mercy Moment, it happens to everybody that volunteers. You meet that one person where you feel like you make a big difference and you know you have because of the way they respond,” says Dr. Wayne Christianson the Local Lead for Mission of Mercy.

Everyone here has their own MOM moment.

If you’d like to volunteer tomorrow, you sign up on the spot.

For those interested in receiving health care at the event, they recommend showing up early.