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Entertaining The Hours Of Your Week With Free Dental Care And A Gala For Ralph Ellison

Jaromír Chalabala
/
Flickr Creative Commons

The Oklahoma Mission of Mercy, aka OkMOM, is in Enid February 7 and 8 at the Chisholm Trail Expo Center to provide Oklahomans complimentary dental care. OkMOM Enid marks the fifth-annual OkMOM event.

“We see a fair number of people down here who have abscessed teeth. All we can do is give them antibiotics,” said Enid Community Clinic Coordinator Janet Cordell according to Mission of Mercy’s website.

The two-day clinic is designed to meet the critical needs of dental patients of all ages by providing free dental care to as many adults and children as time, volunteers and supplies will allow. The clinic operates on a first-come, first-served basis and no appointments necessarily must be made. There are no income, payment or insurance requirements. However, those under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Since 2010, Oklahoma Mission of Mercy says it has treated 7,525 patients, equaling $4,156,073 in donated dental services. OkMOM estimates that dental care will be provided to roughly 2,000 people during this event.

The clinic opens at 5 a.m. each day. It is supported by the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

The Ralph Ellison Centennial Committee celebrates the life and literature of its namesake with a gala at the Oklahoma History Center February 8 at 6 p.m. The black-tie-optional event features an elegant dinner, live entertainment, commemorative speeches and a keynote address from John F. Callahan, Ellison’s literary executor.

The late Ellison was a twentieth-century author and social commentator from Oklahoma City who won the prestigious National Book Award in 1953 for his fictional piece Invisible Man, putting him in the same company as authors like Joyce Carol Oates and William Faulkner who would later win the same award.

To this day, Ellison remains Oklahoma City’s preeminent literary figure as Shadow and Act, a compendium of his short stories, social critiques and literary commentaries, has earned a place among the “100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century” according to the Modern Library publishing company.

Credit The Ralph Ellison Centennial Committee
Oklahoma literary legend, Ralph Ellison.

As fate would have it, he was named after the legendary American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Centennial Committee’s Gala celebrates Ellison’s impact almost century after his March 1, 1914 birthday. Tickets are available online and all proceeds go to the Ralph Ellison Foundation.

For more ways to fill the 168 hours of your week, visit the calendar page.  

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