The Health Wagon, the free-care nonprofit based in Wise County, has asked Lee County for a donation at least three times since August. The Board of Supervisors has not acted on the request. The county has no money set aside for the group this year and has not donated since 2022, County Administrator Clint Carter told the board.
Carter first raised the call in August, according to the August 18 minutes. Supervisor D.D. Leonard asked for more discussion. At the September 15 meeting, Carter said no action had been taken and that he had since received two more calls asking for a donation. He asked whether the board wanted to act.
The September minutes record a discussion of the request but no vote. The item is not on the posted agenda for the board’s October 20 meeting. The minutes do not say how much the Health Wagon asked for.
Who the Health Wagon serves
The group’s services are aimed at uninsured, underinsured and medically underserved people, and no one is turned away because they cannot pay, according to its website. It runs mobile and stationary clinics and a dental clinic, and on July 10 and 11 it held its Move Mountains Medical Mission, according to its news page.
The group traces its start to Sister Bernadette Kenny, a medical missionary from Massachusetts who began offering free care from the back of a donated Volkswagen Beetle, according to its history page. Its clinic page lists its pharmacy and clinics at 5626 Patriot Drive in Wise, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Its mobile clinic page says the Health Wagon visits sites in Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott and Wise counties every week. The monthly schedule posted on that page on October 21 lists 11 stops, though, and none of them is in Lee County. The closest are in neighboring counties: a Dollar General in Duffield, in Scott County, on the second Tuesday of the month, and a Food City in Big Stone Gap, in Wise County, on the second Monday.
The page does not explain why no Lee County stop is listed. The Health Wagon’s number is (276) 328-8850.
The group’s finances
The organization files federal tax returns as St. Mary’s Health Wagon, based in Wise. Its return for 2023, the latest with financial data in ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, shows:
- Total revenue: $6,270,539
- Contributions and grants: $5,310,399
- Total expenses: $6,444,168
- Total assets at year end: $18,036,379
Spending was slightly higher than revenue that year. In the two years before, revenue ran well ahead of spending: about $10.0 million against $5.7 million in 2021, and $9.2 million against $6.9 million in 2022, according to the same filings.
Other spending decisions this fall
The request arrives as the board weighs other outside spending. In September, it renewed its $300 sponsorship of the Lee County Tobacco Festival on a 4 to 1 vote, with Roger Waddell voting no. Supervisors spent part of the same meeting discussing how to renegotiate the county’s contract with the regional library. Carter had told the board in June that the 2026-27 budget needed a $3,806 transfer from reserves to balance.
Residents who want to weigh in can speak during public expression at the board’s regular meetings, held on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. in the General District Courtroom of the Lee County Courthouse in Jonesville.
