The Agape Clinic began in 1983 when Barbara Stark Baxter, MD called the Dallas County Medical Society (DCMS) to ask about physician volunteer opportunities in Dallas. The director of DCMS had never had such an inquiry. He referred Dr. Baxter to Los Barrios Unidos, a clinic in the West Dallas Barrio. Unfortunately, administrators at the clinic feared that having a volunteer physician would jeopardize their much needed federal funding. So instead, they put her on its board of directors. “At one board meeting a passionate individual made a presentation for a clinic she wanted to start in East Dallas," Dr. Baxter says. And therein was her volunteer opportunity. The Agape Clinic provides more than $5 million worth of medical care with a modest budget of roughly $500,000. Our annual patient visits is expected to keep increasing. In 2014, we estimated about 8,500 patient visits.