Co-ops, Ronald McDonald House celebrate Care Mobile

The Care Mobile, a dentist’s office on wheels, will travel western North Dakota, treating children who don’t have access to a dentist.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - January 27, 2012


	John Knox (left), general manager of KEM Electric, and Dean Dewald, director of KEM Electric, put Ronald McDonald in the dentist chair at the Care Mobile launch.

There were several celebrity sightings at the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® ribbon cutting in Bismarck, ND, on Jan. 26. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple was there, along with Miss North Dakota Ariana Walker.

But the celebrity who made the biggest splash of all: Ronald McDonald!

And Ronald McDonald doesn’t come to just any event. There are only 45 Care Mobiles in the world, and the one North Dakota received has been a long time coming. “It takes nine months to produce a baby. Well, when you have a baby that’s 40 feet long, it takes nine years,” said Kathy Keiser, executive director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Bismarck.

The Care Mobile, a dentist’s office on wheels, will travel western North Dakota, treating children who don’t have access to a dentist. Keiser said the program identifies the schools in greatest need by using the North Dakota Public Schools system free/reduced lunch program statistics. This identifies the percentage of low-income students as candidates for this dental service.

“We plan to be on the road three weeks a month. We’ll go into a school or community health center or a Head Start, early on a Monday morning,” Keiser said. “We’ll start seeing kids by noon that day, and then we will see children through that week, probably ending up about noon on Fridays, so then the staff can pack up the Care Mobile and bring it home.” They plan to treat a minimum of 75 children at each location. The Care Mobile will begin operating in Bismarck on Feb. 6.

Basin Electric, along with Touchstone Energy Cooperatives® Roughrider Electric, Slope Electric, KEM Electric and Verendrye Electric, sponsored the Care Mobile. In addition to monetary sponsorship, electric cooperatives will allow the Care Mobile to park inside their shops overnight while in their communities.

Andrew M. Serri, Basin Electric CEO and general manager, told the crowd, “We’re not calling this a truck anymore. This is like ‘rolling care on wheels.’ On behalf of the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, the employees of Basin Electric, we enjoy giving back to the communities that we work in and support.”

Don Franklund, co-manager of Roughrider and Slope Electric in Dickinson and New England, ND, said, “For some of these kids, it’ll be the very first time they’ll ever go to a dentist. We hope this will encourage them to have regular dental care throughout their life.”

John Knox, general manager of KEM Electric in Linton, ND, said, “We felt this program was so important, and this is the cooperative way, looking at our future, taking care of our kids. I’m just going to be ecstatic when the Care Mobile rolls into our service area.”

Video: Co-ops help launch Ronald McDonald Care Mobile

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