Care 4 U Clinic

Before Care 4 U Clinic was established, it had been over 30 years since the greater Dalton, WI, community had a local doctor.  Read on to find out about how the clinic came to be and where it is going...

In order to understand how unique the clinic is and to see how it began, we have to look back many years ago and through many people’s eyes.  In 1995 Judy Buser, a Registered Nurse from Middleton, Wisconsin, and her husband Jerry began visiting the Dalton area after their retirement. The couple made the rounds to all the local Amish businesses and over time they developed a close relationship with the Amish community and learned about their health care needs.

At about the same time, Chris Roberts, a Licensed Midwife from the Montello area, and her daughter and assistant Billie Jo Woitula were busy delivering babies to Amish and English families in the area. It was very evident as the community grew, that the need for their skills and gifts grew, also. They dreamed of one day opening a birthing and care center right in the heart of the community.   

In 1994, Jeff, Judy and Justin Shank were looking for a piece of beautiful, rolling, rural land where they could build their forever home. They were able to purchase land on Grand River Road and dreamed of the day they would leave the “big city”. Their connection to the Amish community here grew from deep friendships with many Amish families in Holmes County, Ohio.

Over the years, unbeknown to each other, each group talked about how blessed they were to visit and live in the area. How they enjoyed the quiet, gentle back roads of rural Wisconsin and its friendly people. They understood their connection to the Amish community was very rare and special. Each of them felt drawn to the area and as their friendships grew with area people, they began to also understand the need for medical care in the area. Judy joined Chris’ midwife service in 2005 to assist with the growing needs of the community. 

As each group became more familiar with the needs of the community it became evident that one of the barriers to securing health care was the distance one must travel to a doctor. They heard the stories of how Dalton and Kingston had been without a doctor for over 30 years. For those that don’t drive, they learned that drivers were hired to take families and individuals to clinics and doctors in Portage, Beaver Dam, and as far away as Madison. With the cost of gas escalating, drivers charged as much as a $1.00 per mile each way.

For years the Busers, Shanks and Chris’ midwife service, as well as many members of the Amish community, continued to pray for a way to bring health care services to the area, even one doctor would be helpful. During the spring of 2008, through common friends within the Amish community, the Busers, the Shanks, Chris and her daughter Billie, and other concerned people from the area, came together and began a series of discussions. Slowly and carefully, and with much prayer, the group worked out a plan to bring basic health care services to the area. In April of 2008, Care 4 U, Inc was established. Jerry Buser, RN, serves as the president of the Board of Directors and Judy Buser, RN, is the secretary. Judy Shank, EMT, with her background in business and nonprofit management, serves as the Clinic manager and the organization’s vice-president and treasurer.

With monetary donations, largely from the Amish community, the group set out to find a location in the Dalton area for the clinic. The historic Rellis Morgan house in the Village of Dalton came up for auction in June and the group were the high bidders. With the help of several volunteers from the Amish community, renovations were quickly made to transform part of the home into a clinic and part into living quarters for the full-time doctor and her children. In honor of Rellis Morgan and all he did for the community, Care 4 U decided to name the home after him. The result is “The Morgan House”.  

The staircase in the historic Morgan House built in the 1800's.