APO Community Health Center

What happens next matters.

We've talked about funding cuts that were coming.

Now they're here.
APO has learned that state funding for critical HIV Lost to Care, Retention, and Peer Navigation services is no more, as well as outreach to women & minorities that may qualify for Medicaid—leaving a $262,500 gap.

Somewhere in our community, a person is hearing the words “You tested positive for HIV” and wondering what they're supposed to do next.

Someone else may qualify for Medicaid but doesn't know it—and the outreach funding that helped connect women and minority communities to coverage and healthcare is gone.

Someone already living with HIV is facing a barrier that could pull them out of care.

The funding disappeared with the snap of a finger. The need doesn't—and most importantly, neither do the people depending on that support.

That's what makes this moment so important.

Because behind every funding cut is a person who may have a harder time finding care, getting medication, navigating a complicated healthcare system, or simply knowing where to turn.

No one should face that decision alone.

APO has set a goal of raising $200,000 by the end of this year to help protect access to care and keep removing the barriers standing between people and the healthcare they need.

$10 helps. $25 helps. $100 helps.
And if you can do more, please do.

This isn't simply about replacing lost dollars.
It's about protecting what those dollars made possible.
Healthcare. Access. Support. Dignity. Hope.

What happens next matters.
And what we do next matters, too.
Let's remove barriers, not rebuild them.

Please give directly to APO at www.apo-ozarks.org if you are able.

Funding cuts cannot become care cuts.

❤️ Yes, the APO Open is ridiculous. But what it supports is anything but.

Behind the putters, drinks, crazy golf holes, party buses and laughter is a pretty important reason we do this.

Every team that signs up helps support the work of APO Community Health Center and our commitment to making healthcare more accessible to people throughout our community.

So yes…

Come have a drink. 🍺
Miss a two-foot putt. ⛳
Laugh until your stomach hurts. 😂
Accuse your friends of creative scorekeeping. 👀

But while you’re doing all of that, know that you’re also helping us remove barriers to healthcare—not rebuild them.

That makes every terrible putt worth it. ❤️

📅 Saturday, September 19
👥 Teams of 4

👉 www.givebutter.com/APO2026

Bizarre Bar-The Flea Springfield MO- Hold Fast Brewing- Inner Circle Springfield- J.O.B Public House- Martha's Vineyard- Mix Ultralounge- MudLounge Coffee & Cocktails- Shot Shack

⛳ WAIT…YOU’VE NEVER DONE THE APO OPEN?!

Ohhhh, friend. We need to fix that.

Imagine mini golf.

Now take away the perfectly manicured course.

Replace it with some of your favorite local bars.

Add drinks, friends, party buses, ridiculous homemade golf holes, terrible putting, laughter, and hundreds of people having one heck of an afternoon.

THAT is the APO Open Mini-Golf Pub Crawl. 🍻⛳

And the best part? All this ridiculousness actually does some serious good by supporting the work of APO Community Health Center.

📅 Saturday, September 19
👥 Teams of 4
🐦 Early Bird registration is available NOW!

👉 www.givebutter.com/APO2026

Come for the putts. Stay for the drinks. Leave knowing you helped your community. ❤️

Shot Shack- MudLounge Coffee & Cocktails- Mix Ultralounge- Martha's Vineyard- J.O.B Public House- Inner Circle Springfield- Hold Fast Brewing- The Flea Springfield MO- Bizarre Bar

📱 Go ahead. Send this to the group chat.

You know the one.

The group that’s always saying, “We need to do something soon!” and then proceeds to do absolutely NOTHING about it. 😂

Well…here you go.

⛳ Mini golf
🍻 Pub crawl
🚌 Party buses
😂 Questionable scorekeeping
🏆 Bragging rights
❤️ Supporting APO Community Health Center

The APO Open is Saturday, September 19, and all you need is a team of FOUR.

Now tag your people, make someone take responsibility for actually registering the team, and LET’S GO.

👉 www.givebutter.com/APO2026

Because “we should totally do that” is NOT a registration. 😏

Bizarre Bar- The Flea Springfield MO- Hold Fast Brewing- Inner Circle Springfield- J.O.B Public House- Martha's Vineyard- Mix Ultralounge- MudLounge Coffee & Cocktails- Shot Shack

🎉🎂 SOME PEOPLE HAVE BIRTHDAYS. JONATHAN JOHNSON HAS AN EVENT. 🎂🎉

And really… would we expect anything less?

Today we get to celebrate one of the most colorful, compassionate, talented, fiercely loyal and genuinely kindest humans we know—our very own APO Community Health Center Board Member, Jonathan Johnson! ❤️

Jonathan is one of those rare people who simply cannot blend into the background. Sometimes that’s because of an outfit that deserves its own ZIP code. Sometimes it’s because he has something to say and, trust us, you’re going to hear it. 😂 But most often, it’s because Jonathan has a heart that refuses to let him stand quietly by when someone needs help, encouragement, protection, a friend—or someone willing to speak up on their behalf.

He creates beautiful things with fabric, thread and a sewing machine, but some of the most beautiful things Jonathan creates have nothing to do with sewing. He creates belonging. He creates laughter. He creates spaces where people can show up exactly as they are and know they have someone in their corner.

Since joining our Board of Directors in 2016, Jonathan has brought all of that—and so much more—to APO. He loves this organization fiercely because he loves the people we serve fiercely. He challenges us, cheers for us, volunteers beside us, advocates for our clients and never lets us forget that compassion isn’t something you simply talk about. You live it.

And Jonathan lives it BIG.

Big personality.
Big laugh.
Big opinions. 😉
Big talent.
Big love.

And underneath every fabulous stitch, every unforgettable outfit, every volunteer hour and every passionately delivered opinion is one extraordinarily tender heart.

Jonathan, APO is better because you are part of it, and our community is brighter because you are in it.

So today, we hope your birthday is just like you: bold, colorful, slightly over-the-top, filled with laughter and absolutely impossible to ignore. 🎈✨

Happy Birthday, Jonathan! We love you BIG! ❤️🎂

Now everybody else—make some noise in the comments and help us celebrate this wonderfully infamous human! 🎉🥳

⛳🍻 FOUR PEOPLE. $80. ONE RIDICULOUSLY FUN AFTERNOON.

Do the math—that’s just $20 per person to spend an afternoon putting your way through some of your favorite local watering holes, laughing at your friends’ questionable athletic abilities, enjoying a few beverages, and doing some GOOD while you’re at it.

The APO Open Mini-Golf Pub Crawl is coming Saturday, September 19!

🐦 Early Bird registration is happening NOW, so grab three people you can tolerate for a few hours and get that team registered.

👉 www.givebutter.com/APO2026

PUTT. DRINK. DO GOOD. REPEAT. ⛳🍺❤️

🎉💜 It’s Lori Lampert’s birthday—and that gives us a pretty great excuse to celebrate one of our favorite humans! 💜🎉

There are some people who walk into a room and immediately make it feel a little warmer, a little kinder, and a whole lot more welcoming. Lori is one of those people. And if you’re lucky, that welcome might come with one of Lori’s hugs—which, for the record, are some of the very best hugs you’ll ever receive. The kind that somehow say, ‘I see you, I’m glad you’re here, and you matter’ without her having to say a single word. 💜

As a member of the APO Community Health Center Board of Directors, Lori brings something that can’t be taught in a board orientation or found in a policy manual: a lifetime of wisdom paired with a genuine curiosity about people. She asks thoughtful questions. She listens carefully. She laughs easily. And perhaps most importantly, she never seems to forget that behind every decision we make are real people with real lives, real struggles, real hopes, and real stories.

Lori has spent her life caring for people—as a nurse, a United Methodist minister, a wife, mom and grandma. She has also walked through some pretty difficult chapters of her own, including cancer, and somehow all of those experiences have only made her capacity for compassion, grace and joy even greater.

And we are incredibly lucky that she chooses to share some of that with APO.

Lori, thank you for reminding us that leadership doesn't always have to be the loudest voice in the room. Sometimes it looks like asking one more question. Listening a little longer. Offering a different perspective. Laughing when we need it. And always, always making sure people remain at the center of the conversation.

Today, though, there are no board packets, no motions, no seconds and absolutely nothing requiring a vote. 😉 Today, the agenda has exactly ONE item:

🎂 CELEBRATE LORI! 🎂

We hope your birthday brings you an abundance of laughter, love, cake, and all the joy you so freely give to everyone around you.

Happy Birthday, Lori! We are so grateful you are part of the APO family. 💜🥳🎉

Help us fill Lori's day with some love by wishing her a very happy birthday below! 👇

📸 Kimera Taji Photography

$262,500. Gone.
The need? Still here.

APO has learned that state funding for critical HIV Lost to Care, Retention, and Peer Navigation services is no more, as well as outreach to women & minorities that may qualify for Medicaid—leaving a $262,500 gap.

What does that really mean?

It means someone with HIV out of care may no longer have the same support helping them through one of the most overwhelming moments of their life—connecting them to APO, getting into medical care, accessing medications, and understanding what comes next.

But the loss reaches even further.

Funding for outreach to women and minority communities who may qualify for Medicaid is also gone. That outreach helped people navigate enrollment and gain access not simply to APO, but more importantly to healthcare as a whole—sometimes reaching people who didn't know coverage or care was even within reach.

The funding vanished with the stroke of a pen. The barriers, the need, and the people facing them are still here.

For more than 40 years, this community has refused to let our neighbors face these moments alone. We aren't about to start now.

APO has set a goal of raising $250,000 by the end of the year.
It's a big number. But this is a big community.
Give $10. Give $25. Give $100. Give what you can. And if you're fortunate enough to give more, please do.

Because whether it's someone hearing “You tested positive for HIV” or someone finally discovering that healthcare may be within reach— What happens next matters.

Let's remove barriers, not rebuild them. Funding cuts cannot become care cuts.

❤️ Honoring Progress. Protecting What Comes Next.
Give directly to APO at www.apo-ozarks.org