NORWICH – A massive effort to connect thousands of area residents to no-cost health care services is a go, thanks to a partnership between a local coalition of planning and human service agencies, and the United States Department of Defense.

Greater Chenango Cares is an 11-day initiative that will offer no-cost routine medical, dental, optometry, and veterinary services to residents of Chenango and surrounding areas while at the same time providing service men and women with training for wartime missions and disasters. The event, which is spearheaded by the Chenango County Department of Planning and Development, will run July 13 through July 23 at the Norwich City High School.

According to the Chenango Department of Planning and Development, Greater Chenango Cares will serve in the ball park of 5,000 residents through the helping hands of approximately 170 U.S. service members. While the Department of Defense has held such Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) exercises in underserved communities throughout the country, this will be the first of its kind in the north east.

“It’s a big project,” said Shane Butler of the Chenango County Department of Planning and Development. “One of the things we want to stress is that these people are physicians. This isn’t going to be a training to make sure they know how to be a physician. It’s more to learn how they can set up a temporary hospital where they can treat people in case of an emergency event.”

Conservative estimates from the DOD are that the event will provide 1,600 people with medical services. Another 1,750 will be provided with dental services, 500 with optical services, and 400 with veterinary services.

Initially, those figures were much lower, explained Donna Jones, Director of the Chenango County Department of Planning and Development. In 2013, when the department collaborated with Southern Tier East Regional Planning and Development to submit an IRT site plan application to the DOD, plans were to host the event at the fairgrounds in Norwich. But because the Norwich City School District has offered use of the high school facilities, the DOD is presented a significant cost savings. Medical tents and other stand-alone facilities will not have to be shipped to the area, said Jones, meaning it will be able to send more service members instead, thus serve more people within the community.