Mia Jones helped her YMCA-director father raise money for needy children to take part in Y activities.

Kathryn Pearson Peyton played violin for residents of a retirement home.

Susan Towler was a child-care volunteer at the Happy Acres Ranch.

Other families go outside and play football, said Annie Egan. We did community service.

They are among 12 Northeast Florida women who trace their charitable tendencies to their youth, when their parents and families set an example of helping others. Volunteers in Medicine Jacksonville, a nonprofit clinic largely staffed by volunteers, honored them at a recent luncheon as Women With Heart who champion health-care access, kicking off a unique year-long fundraising campaign.

Philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver, a longtime donor who gave the clinic two $100,000 challenge grants in the past year, was given the inaugural Dorion-Burt Heart of Gold Award, named after the clinics founders. Each of the other 11 women honored Jones, Pearson Peyton, Towler and Egan, along with Aimee Boggs, Paula Liang, the Rev. Kate Moorehead, Helen Morse, Nicole Thomas, Lisa Weatherby and Tracy Williams will spend a different month in 2017 working to increase public awareness about Volunteers in Medicine and financial support for its mission.

How they customize that month of advocacy is up to them, said clinic CEO Mary Pat Corrigan. As a conversation starter during their respective month, each will wear the $7,000 diamond heart necklace designed exclusively for the cause by Beards Jewelry. At next years luncheon, the necklace will go home with the winner of a drawing. Also, at the luncheon they received an exclusive Bacardi rum made in their honor.

With their individual circles of influence, we believe we will significantly increase the recognition of the valuable work we are doing to keep our vulnerable, hard-working and uninsured families and individuals healthy, employed and out of our hospital emergency rooms, Corrigan said.

Volunteers in Medicine provides free health care to low-income, uninsured working adults and their families at a full-service downtown clinic funded by grants and donations.

About 230 volunteers including 70 physicians and nurse practitioners from all the major area hospitals annually provide about $1.2 million worth of primary and specialty care, dental and eye care, mental-health and nutritional counseling, among other services. Also, the clinic is a learning ground for nurse practitioners, resident physicians and other health-care professionals in training at area colleges and hospitals.

In 2002 founders Dottie Dorion and Jim Burt saw the need for health care for the working poor. Dorion was a registered nurse, founder of Community Hospice of Northeast Florida and philanthropist; Burt, a recently retired urologist who was long active in community affairs and advocacy for the medically underserved. After a year of planning, fundraising and overseeing renovation of an old Salvation Army building, they opened the clinic in 2003.

I wanted to do something for the community to help people who were finding it hard, Burt said.

Even though the working poor had jobs in some cases, two jobs many of them still could not afford health care for themselves and their families, he said.

They dont fit into the [health care] system, he said.

Over the years, the clinic has received grants and donations that allowed us to stay open and keep up with patient care, Dorion said.

We had the good fortune to be supported by many people who shared our vision, she said, citing Weaver in particular as providing game changing funding last year when it was needed most. Weavers two 2016 grants not only helped the nonprofit achieve financial stability, but enabled us to expand our services, according to board chairman Cory Meyers.

Florida Blue, which hosted the luncheon at its Deerwood Campus conference center, is also a longtime supporter, said Darnell Smith, North Florida market president.

Everybody deserves access to good health care, he said at the luncheon.

Also, he said the 12 Women With Heart deserve recognition for their collective good works.

Each has demonstrated compassion, dedication and commitment to help better our community, Smith said. They demonstrate integrity.

The honorees each said community service was an integral part of their lives. Liang recalled a teacher who made her realize it was OK to be smart and a girl, which led to her going to Brown University and law school.

How could I not pay that forward, she said.

Williams said when she sees an injustice, I have to help.

I truly believe we are here to take care of each other, she said.

When we follow God, Moreland said, we are all capable of miracles.

Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109

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'Women With Heart' to advocate for Volunteers in Medicine - Florida Times-Union