Generous Donation Paves Way for Retirement

At age 64, Greensboro dentist John Chandler was ready to retire. But what to do with his dental practice? So he donated it to his country’s low-income dental clinics. Yes, that’s right, he donated his entire dental practice – the building, the equipment, the computers, the chairs, every bit of it.

Chandler estimates the value of the gift at $1.4 million. Chandler (who also owns another business, Chandler Foods) decided to skip the profit and the headache of selling his practice. He’s financially comfortable and ready to move on. Said the dentist, set to retire in May, “I’m just walking out.”

Needless to say, North Carolina’s Guilford County is delighted with the gift to its cash-strapped dental clinic program. Unfortunately, the clinics do not receive enough funding to support a full-time dentist at the new office, but officials are hopeful that grant money will allow them to do so in the future. The clinics are currently open only three nights a week, and may be further cut back to two weeks a month. Of the county’s estimate 54,000 uninsured, 3,000 are already on the waiting list for the clinics, which charge only $10 per visit.

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