FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Just in time to celebrate the Mardi Gras season, the Baldwin County Medical Society (BCMS) is holding a King Cake sale, with proceeds benefiting the Alabama Free Clinic.

Cream cheese-filled King Cakes made by Randazzo’s Camellia City Bakery will be sold on Monday, Feb. 16, beginning at 7 a.m., in the main lobby of Thomas Hospital in Fairhope. The cost is $22 (cash only) each, and the cakes will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

BCMS will have 1,000 King Cakes on hand that morning, but they could sell out fairly quickly as evidenced by the popularity of the fundraiser in years past. Randazzo’s carnival confections were recently declared the best by readers of New Orleans magazine.

“It’s hard to stay up there, but we really try,” said Tricia Randazzo-Zornes, owner of the Slidell, La. bakery. “We make our cakes with love, from beginning to end.”

Her father opened the bakery in Violet, La. in 1965. It has been located in the city north of Lake Pontchartrain for the last 12 years.

Randazzo-Zornes said King Cakes were brought over from France in the 1800s, and the tradition grew from there. She noted, “Once New Orleans gets a hold of something they run with it.”

According to tradition, the small plastic doll hidden inside each doughy, icing-covered ring represents the baby Jesus. The person who finds the figure in their slice of cake is expected to buy the next cake, as well as host the next Mardi Gras party.

Randazzo’s sells King Cakes with seasonal themes year-round, but it’s now they kick into high gear. They regularly sell the cakes nationwide on their Web site.

“This is a legacy dating back to my dad,” Randazzo-Zornes said. Although the bakery doesn’t keep track of the number of King Cakes baked and sold there, she acknowledged it numbers in the thousands each year.

William A. Chambers, executive director of the Alabama Free Clinic, pointed out that the BCMS King Cake fundraiser is a sweet way to help the nonprofit group serve more clients.

“We’re about to implement a major expansion,” he said. “Fundamentally, we are instituting major change in ’09. We do need the support of the Baldwin County Medical Society, and this cake sale is something they organized to support us. It’s very important.”

The free clinic, the first of its kind in Alabama, was established in Bay Minette as a 501(c)(3) entity on Aug. 28, 1998. It is now in the 11th year of providing health care at no charge to needy and medically uninsured adult (ages 18-64) residents of Baldwin County.

Chambers said doctors will staff a total of 46 Thursday morning and afternoon clinics this year in Bay Minette, and 49 in the evenings.

There will soon be an increase in patient visits because of additional clinics to be held in the L.E. Rockwell Building (home of the Alabama Department of Public Health) on Highway 90 in Robertsdale. He noted 1,000 patient visits are possible there in 2009, beginning next month.

The clinic will have one physician on duty at the Robertsdale clinic on Tuesday evenings at 6:30, with the first set for March 3. That schedule will continue through May. An additional doctor will be added in June, effectively doubling the number of patients.

Chambers said the existing clinic served the medical needs of 292 individual patients last year, at an average of 2.5 visits each. The number of patient visits was 752.

He expects to reach 1,400 annual patient visits in Bay Minette this year with the May relocation of the main clinic. Chambers said the clinic will exchange facilities with the Baldwin County Revenue Department and move to Courthouse Square, where they will have more elbow room.

“The board has made it clear they want me to put together a plan to serve all 16,000 adults in Baldwin County without health insurance,” Chambers said. He noted, “The money (raised through the King Cake sale) will go toward the incremental, direct cost of expansion.”

The Alabama Free Clinic is one of only 15 in the state. Chambers said two other clinics that serve low income residents here — in Loxley and Foley — charge fees per visit, and pass along the cost for lab work.

He credits North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette for providing testing and radiology services to the free clinic at no charge. Thomas Hospital in Fairhope will do the same for the new Robertsdale clinic, he added.

Chambers said an extensive network of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, who volunteer their time and energy to the clinic and open their private practices to referrals, deserve most of the credit for the clinic’s success. But more assistance is needed.

“We’re looking for someone to handle referrals at no or lesser fees,” he said.

Three physicians seated on the board of directors are currently soliciting the medical community, looking for doctors willing to see clinic patients at their office. Also needed are additional doctors who are willing to volunteer at the Robertsdale clinic.

Services have so far been focused on general medical conditions with emphasis on cardiovascular disease. A related emphasis has been diabetes prevention and treatment.

A volunteer board of 15 directors leads the clinic, and a registered nurse, Amelia Stephens, fills the part-time position of clinic coordinator.

The clinic receives support from the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Baldwin County Commission and foundations, individuals and organizational donors.

Chambers was hired as the full-time executive director in December 2007 to oversee what would become a new chapter in the clinic’s history.

More than 1,470 individual patients have received medical care since the clinic was established. From 1998 through 2007, around two-thirds of those were women.

In 2008, 55 medical professionals contributing 750 hours of volunteer service conducted 55 Thursday clinics in Bay Minette.

The ultimate vision, clinic leaders say, is a work in progress. It might be a combination of afternoon and evening volunteer clinics in several locations, along with a strategically located daily clinic.

The Baldwin County Medical Society recently gave the clinic a donation of $10,000 to support its services. BCMS is a professional organization of physicians in Baldwin County, and is part of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama.

Substantial and sustained support is needed. If you would like to donate directly to the Alabama Free Clinic, send a check to P.O. Box 1284, Bay Minette, AL 36507.

For more information about the clinic, call (251) 937-8096.