Cullman’s Good Samaritan Health Clinic is surging toward its goal of raising the $2.8 million needed to construct a new facility, buoyed by charitable donations — like the $50,000 the nonprofit received last week from the Cullman Lions Club — that reflect the community’s faith in the nonprofit’s 20-year outreach track record.

Cullman Lions presented Good Samaritan last week with the large capital campaign donation, ratifying an established local partnership that amounts to more than money. In the process, hopes Good Samaritan director Jolanda Hutson, they’re also setting an example for other community-minded businesses and organizations to emulate.

“The Lions do support us annually, but their members also volunteer for us. They literally serve, and we’re grateful for that,” said Hutson.

“Last year, several Lions Club members advocated for Good Samaritan to be the location for one of their two mobile [eye care] units throughout the state,” she said. “Because of that, the unit that covers north Alabama now comes to us on a monthly basis, and they bring an optometrist and an optometry technician. Several local Lions volunteer each month to come out and assist with that: They’re the ones who actually help the patients on and off the van.”

Announced in April, the clinic’s new location will be housed in a purpose-built facility slated to break ground sometime next year along Short Street SW in Cullman, just across the street from the Yates-Chance Christian Book Store on property conveniently accessible from the nearby U.S. Highway 31.

So far, the capital campaign to fund the new facility has raised more than $1.9 million toward its $2.3 million goal, and campaign director Susan Copeland, alongside Hutson and the Good Samaritan Clinic’s Board of directors, is making a late-year push to raise the project’s visibility while advocating the clinic’s overall mission to potential donors.

“The Good Samaritan Clinic has been operating in Cullman for 20 years — this year is actually our 20th anniversary — but there are still a lot of people who might not know about us, or know about the role we play in this community,” said Hutson, noting that the public is invited to learn more about the nonprofit at an afternoon Open House event on Sunday, Aug. 25.

The open house will offer informational tours of the clinic’s current facility (located in the bottom level of the Folsom Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center at 401 Arnold Street NE in Cullman), while also providing a wealth of insight into how its staff, its volunteers and its professional medical partnerships all work together to deliver cost-free basic health care to uninsured area residents in need. Any member of the public is welcome to attend.

To reserve a time for one of the event’s three organized sessions (at 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 25), visit the clinic’s open house page online at goodsamaritancullman.com/events/open-house and scan the QR code to register.

For more information about the clinic, its mission and its planned new Cullman facility, visit the clinic’s main website at goodsamaritancullman.com.