Starting at 9 a.m. from the Alder Street offices of Partnership Health Center, Forney-Gorman will head out on a marathon course that will take her around Missoula, past the homes of some of her patients and see her finish at the Creamery building on Railroad Street.
That's significant, because Forney-Gorman's run is designed as a fundraiser for Partnership's purchase of the Creamery, a building that will give Partnership space to deal with a rapidly growing client base.
Forney-Gorman's run is a way to bring attention to both Partnership's space needs and the ongoing plight of those who struggle to afford health care.
“We are the safety net for all of those people, and right now we can't serve them all because we just don't have the room,” said Mansch. “Right now, we're serving 10,000 people a year, but in a larger space, we could conceivably serve twice that many.”
Mansch said Partnership now has a buy-sell agreement on the Creamery building and expects to close in November.
Which brings us back to Forney-Gorman, who was looking for a way to highlight the difficulties faced by her patients and Partnership's problems in meeting the demand for its services.
“I was thinking of a way to make it a visual representation of who our clients are and what that means across the community,” said Forney-Gorman, who is partnership's medical director.
And thus, a marathon that tours the city.
“We've got 10 patients of hers that sort of reflect our geographic diversity and also gets us to the marathon distance,” Mansch said with a laugh.
Now, Forney-Gorman is no neophyte when it comes to running.
She's a member of Missoula's Team Stampede, has run a handful of marathons and has competed in the Iron Man Triathlon and many other triathlons.
Forney-Gorman said some of her patients plan to run part of the course with her, and she'll also be joined by some Team Stampeders and possibly a few other Missoula doctors.
“It's really open to anybody who wants to take part, either part of the way, the whole way, or whatever people are comfortable with,” she said.
Forney-Gorman has sought sponsorships in the Missoula medical community, and Mansch said those donations and others will be important as Partnership looks to pay off its new facility.
“We are going to have some debt with the new facility, so it's a situation where every dollar we raise is helpful,” said Mansch.
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