MARC JACOBS
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — PrairieStar Health Center needs to raise another $376,000 by Jan. 13, 2027, to qualify for a $600,000 challenge grant that would help complete funding for its $9.6 million dental expansion.
CEO Bryant Anderson said during an interview on the BW Morning Show that PrairieStar has raised about $8.3 million for the project. The remaining funding depends on meeting the challenge grant’s fundraising requirement.
Unlike a matching grant that provides money incrementally, Anderson said this grant requires PrairieStar to raise the entire $676,000 challenge amount before receiving the additional $600,000. About $300,000 has been raised toward that requirement.
“If we fall short, we don’t get any of the $600,000,” Anderson said. “And right now, we’re short.”
Anderson credited several major donors with helping the campaign reach its current total. He hopes others who received campaign mailings will consider contributing as the year ends.
The expansion would increase PrairieStar’s dental clinic from eight treatment chairs to 14. Anderson said a conservative estimate projects the clinic could serve an additional 2,000 to 3,000 people annually.
“We think we’ll actually double where we’re at, but we’re trying to be conservative,” he said. “We don’t want to … overpromise and underdeliver.”
The project also includes a dedicated treatment room with a wheelchair lift, allowing patients who cannot transfer from their wheelchairs to receive dental care locally.
Anderson said some patients with those needs currently must leave the community for treatment. The new equipment would allow PrairieStar to provide care while patients remain in their wheelchairs.
Planning for the expansion began nearly five years ago as demand for dental services continued to increase. At one point, Anderson said, the clinic’s waiting list filled 86 handwritten pages.
“We could see the writing on the wall that the dental clinic was just getting so busy,” he said.
PrairieStar also provides dental outreach to schools, rural communities, nursing homes and organizations serving people with disabilities. Anderson said those services reach individuals who might otherwise go without care.
He recalled an elderly nursing home resident who asked outreach staff to clean her teeth. Staff returned to provide the service and later learned she had been receiving hospice care and died the following day.
Anderson said the woman had always taken pride in caring for her teeth and wanted them cleaned before her death.
The story illustrates the personal importance of access to dental care, he said, whether for children struggling with decay or older adults unable to travel to a clinic.
Donations to the Bridging the Gap dental campaign can be made online through PrairieStar’s website or by mailing a check. Anderson said the center also accepts stock donations.
For information about contributing, contact Anderson at 620-200-5410.