Jean B. Purvis health center cornhole event draws community support

The biggest takeaway from Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center’s first cornhole tournament was not who advanced in the bracket, but how easily the game pulled people together around a clinic that depends on them. Held as part of the center’s second annual Food Truck Fundraiser at 103 Bonnie Drive in Butler, the event started at 11 a.m., paired lawn-sport competition with local food vendors and raffle-style activities, and gave the nonprofit a low-cost way to connect with residents and potential donors.

Only five teams signed up for the inaugural cornhole competition, a modest field that fit the event’s community-first feel. The tournament was run as double-elimination, which guaranteed every team at least two games and kept the focus on participation rather than pressure. Several throwers said they were there to back the center first and worry about their boards second, a fitting match for an event built less as a high-stakes showdown than as a fundraiser with a game attached.

That approach makes sense for a clinic whose work touches far more than one Saturday in June. Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center is a nonprofit, volunteer-powered, community-funded clinic that provides free outpatient primary medical care, preventive services, referrals to specialists and other agencies, and additional offerings including basic dental care, behavioral health services, health and wellness education, vision care and dermatology care for uninsured and underinsured patients. The center says its patients are typically ages 19 to 64, and that it is funded entirely through community contributions, fundraising events, grants and gifts-in-kind.

The clinic’s roots also give the fundraiser extra weight. Jean Burchinal Purvis was inspired in 2005 after seeing a Volunteers in Medicine clinic in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and pushed Butler leaders to establish the Community Health Clinic of Butler County, which opened in 2008. It was renamed the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center in 2018, and a Butler Eagle report said the original campaign raised more than $1 million.

The need for that support has only grown. The center says volunteers have given more than 65,000 service hours, helped provide care to more than 12,000 individuals and delivered $4 million in free medication. A 2024 impact report cited by Butler Eagle showed patient visits rose 32.5% from 2023 to 2024, underscoring why even a small cornhole field matters. In a town like Butler, the game’s real strength is not just in the toss, but in its ability to bring a clinic, its volunteers and its supporters to the same tables, the same food trucks and the same cause.