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Photography by danny gilleland by kristen soles Linda Lee, RN checks patient Shiquinta Johnson's blood pressure. Celebrating a Lifeline Macon Volunteer Clinic provides valuable services to deserving patients In 2001, Americans were embarking on a new millennium with more opportunities and promise than ever before. For example, there were new resources such as Wikipedia, and a new music device called the iPod. But, at the same time, a huge chunk of our population continued to live without something considered basic and necessary by residents of the first world: access to health care. Locally, Bibb County sat poised on the brink of something amazing yet unrealized. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Macon Volunteer Clinic has worked to address that need by providing health-care services to people who otherwise couldn't afford it. 62 l Macon Magazine The clinic was Dr. Chapin Henley's brainchild, conceived after he read a Newsweek magazine article about the first volunteer medical clinic in the country. He traveled to Hilton Head, S.C., the site mentioned in the magazine article, and took notes. He returned to Macon where he and friend Dr. Patrick Roche set up a meeting with other close acquaintances to discuss possibilities. When the group finally convened in a small classroom at Martha Bowman United Methodist Church, the audience was standing-room only. Over the next 18 months, business professionals and merchants from all aspects of industry donated goods and services to bring the clinic to fruition. april/MAy 2013