Martin County, Ky. was described by SHC students as being a “strikingly beautiful mountainous area in the eastern Kentucky coalfields”. With a population of 14,000 in 1982, the county was without adequate public services (e.g. no water and sewer systems, no garbage collection, poor roads, and inadequate public health services), and some county residents had an hour drive in order to obtain urgent or emergency health services on weekends. A health fair was held there in conjunction with Concerned Citizens of Martin County (CCMC) during which approximately 300 patients were seen. The Coalition later returned the following summer, in 1983, at the request of CCMC to work alongside the Student Environmental Health Project from the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt. Over a two-week long health fair, exams were provided to 450 county residents. Current reference to the Concerned Citizens of Martin County can be found on Facebook and other websites.
See the 1982 SHC Annual Report for more information.