Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • June 15, 2018 10 SVDP Community Pharmacy celebrates 20th anniversary with establishment of Hattiesburg facility BY TERRY DICKSON BILOXI -- For two decades, the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy has bridged a gap in health care by providing prescription medication to the poor of the southernmost counties of Mississippi. Now, the pharmacy is expanding its services to Hattiesburg. “In October, we will have a permanent, fully functional pharmacy in Hattiesburg, serving the northern part of our diocese,” SVDP Community Pharmacy Executive Director Sam Burke said during a May 31 program celebrating the pharmacy’s 20th anniversary at its Biloxi headquarters on Division Street. “Just like this place didn’t come with a road map, necessarily, we are navigating our way into new territories. It’ll be, yet again, a somewhat humble beginningwithhopes anddreams and aspirations of what you see here -- to have a fully functional facility up there, predominately run by dedicated volunteers. The idea is that, eventually, if you live in the lower 18 counties of South Mississippi, you might be able to get the help you need with just a 30-minute car ride at the most.” The SVDP Community Pharmacy also has satellite offices in Bay St. Louis and Moss Point. The announcement of a new Hattiesburg office, the exact location of which will be announced at a later date, was the icing on the cake on a day when pharmacy employees, volunteers and supporters, including Bishop Louis F. Kihneman, Bishop-emeritus Roger Morin and Biloxi Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gillich gathered to celebrate how far the pharmacy has come in 20 years. “I’m very grateful for all that you do,” Bishop Kihneman said. “(The SVDP Community Pharmacy) touches people in a way that they would not get touched in the community here. It’s a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for our community to come together to share the love of the Lord.” Bishop Morin called the pharmacy “a very important ministry for the local Church.” “It is through our charities -- our care and concern and the love that we show for our brothers and sisters -- that we give evidence to our faith,” he said. “The pharmacy does that in a very particular way and provides benefits to those who are in the greatest of need. The pharmacy which is conducted here, although not unique to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, I believe is one of the most significant pharmacies being operated within a diocese by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.” Genesis of pharmacy -- a vision transforms into action from humble beginnings Bob Mayer was involved from the very beginning of the SVDP Community Pharmacy, and still volunteers in the Moss Point office. “It all started with Dr. Peter Pavlov. He had an idea for this ministry,” said Mayer. “He brought in Msgr. (James) Hannon, Fabin Ladner and Charles Braun. How did I get into this? I had an automobile, a company car. So, one day, Peter Pavlov comes in and says, ‘Bob, you still have that company car?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Peter’ and he said, ‘You’re taking us to Baton Rouge.’ I said, ‘Ok, when are we going?’ He said, ‘Tomorrow. We’re going to Baton Rouge to look at a pharmacy.’ Well, we did and that was the beginning of my involvement with the pharmacy. “But those four guys had a vision and they knew this ministry was needed. So many people on this coast, even today, cannot afford the medicine that we are providing for them. There are some that haven’t even heard about our pharmacy yet and I hope we can get the word out to them.” Mayer said the pharmacy started with just $107 in the treasury. “I questioned Peter and said, ‘Peter, how in the world can we do anything with $107?’ His answer was the best answer I have ever heard. He said, ‘If it’s God’s will, it’ll happen’ and, within one week, we had our first donation from the Jeffrey O’Keefe Foundation of $8,000. From there, we have never looked back.” Theresa Pavlov, the daughter-in-law of Dr. Peter Pavlov, who died in 2012, recalled how her father-in-law came to her one day and asked her to help him write bylaws for the pharmacy. She readily agreed, but little did she know what she was getting herself into. “Here I stand 20 years later,” said Pavlov, who eventually became the pharmacy’s volunteer executive director, a position she held until 2010, when Burke was hired to be the paid director. “He retired right after that and said, ‘It’s all yours. He also took us over to the storage room for the old Coastal Family Health and said, ‘Here’s our new digs.’ Msgr. Hannon got scrap lumber together and built our pharmacy cabinets. We took off from there. It was one of the most unattractive places you could ever imagine. To get to the back, you had to get people who were interviewing to stand up so you could go down the hall. “I had the best time of my life. We had to screen people out on the street. We had to figure out things as we went. I can remember walking in at eight o’clock in the morning to find people wrapped around the block. They had been there since four o’clock in the morning because they wanted to be first in line. They didn’t want to miss the chance for their medicine. It was heartbreaking.” Pavlov remembers that, in the beginning, volunteers like pharmacist Larry Calvert and Nelda Latour, jumped in to help. “People just jumped in and did,” she said. “They were so resourceful and so committed to the vision.” Back to square one post-Katrina, but the blessings continued In 2005, Hurricane Katrina wiped out the pharmacy. “It was devastating, because it was something we had built up and we were really off and running, and we had this big future,” she said. “Then, in a weekend, we lost everything and didn’t know what we were going to do.” Their worries were short-lived. “It was amazing to me, at that time, the number of people that reached out to us from everywhere,” said Pavlov. For example, she said a group from Colorado sent $40,000 to purchase a trailer to use as a base of operations on the Coastal Family Health property on Division Street. Bishop-emeritus Roger Morin, Bishop Louis F. Kihneman and St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy Executive Director Sam Burke share a lighthearted mo- ment during a May 31 program celebrating the pharmacy’s 20th anniversary. Burke announced that the pharmacy will open a Hattiesburg location in October. Photo/Terry Dickson SEE SVDP PHARMACY, PAGE 17