A REASON TO GIVE THANKS: Anne Rice and her son Keith, volunteers from Faith Covenant Church, help with the distribution of Thanksgiving baskets. Credit: Courtesy St. Petersburg Free Clinic

Considering the breadth of services offered by the St. Petersburg Free Clinic, you'd be hard-pressed to find an area in which you couldn't offer some assistance.

The Free Clinic, which opened in 1970, provides help to those in need in five areas:

• Beacon House: Transitional housing for homeless men; also serves as a community kitchen

• Food Bank: Supplies other community organizations with food for those in need

• Health Center: Urgent care clinic for those 18-64 without private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid who don't qualify for county health care

• We Help Services: Provides a number of resources to those in need, from hygiene items to limited financial assistance with water bills

• Women's Residence: For single homeless women to stay while working and planning for independent living

Rebecca Russell-Gootee, director of volunteer services and special events, says the clinic helps about 30,000 people a year. According to its 2005-06 annual report, the organization distributed 1.5 million pounds of food to local agencies, provided 11,000 nights of shelter, served over 24,000 meals and provided 6,000 doctor visits as well as 11,000 prescriptions.

And volunteers are essential for the organization to get the job done. Twice a month, the clinic holds orientation sessions — which usually last about 45 minutes — for people looking to give their time. The length of additional training varies according to the department and job.

By visiting each service at the clinic's website, you can learn about its particular needs, which currently include food distribution, picking up donations, cooking or serving meals and greeting patients.

Russell-Gootee says the clinic has around 300 regular volunteers throughout the year, but when factoring in those who provide seasonal or one-time assistance, that number rises to 1,000.

And every one of them is critical to the Clinic's dedication to helping those in need.

"We have 22 paid staff," Russell-Gootee says. "So for us, if we didn't have volunteers, we couldn't be open."