Imperial Sugar Helps Community Clinic

Like many charitable organizations, the San Jose Clinic in Houston, Texas, largely depends on volunteers to keep it running. Operated by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the clinic has been providing healthcare and health education to economically disadvantaged individuals and families in the Greater Houston area since 1922.

Imperial’s Mike Bentley (L), senior manager of infrastructure and Rick Fitzjarrell, computer operations manager, installing wireless network at Houston's San Jose Clinic.

Executives from Imperial Sugar Company took an interest in the clinic’s work during a tour of its facilities and offered to help in any way they could.

That offer paid off for the clinic when it recently moved to a new location in town.

Help came in the way of technical expertise from Imperial’s Mike Bentley, senior manager of infrastructure and Rick Fitzjarrell, computer operations manager for the company.

Bentley and Fitzjarrell essentially got all of the clinic’s computer work stations up and running, networking more than two dozen desktops, several printers and servers. The pair also installed several wireless access points in the ceilings on two different floors … no small task.

“There’s only one of me here, so Mike and Rick’s help really made a difference,” said Joe de la Garza, information systems manager at San Jose Clinic. “They saved us a lot of time. They knocked out every single computer, printer and wireless access point in one day.”

“We enjoyed it; it was fun,” said Bentley. “It came naturally to us since we deal with this kind of thing in our Imperial Sugar work.” According to Bentley, this may be the first of more volunteer visits to come.

Imperial also donated a pallet of sugar to the clinic for its “Lunch and Learns,” periodic luncheons where members of the community can learn more about the facility and the programs it offers.

In 2008, the San Jose Clinic treated 4,803 patients through 34,849 patient visits, providing medical, dental, pharmacy and social services.