NORWICH – A familiar summer installation of military vehicles, service personnel dressed in fatigues and scores of many appreciative community members will soon take over the Norwich High School Campus for the welcomed return of the Greater Chenango Cares-Innovative Readiness Training (IRT).

Beginning today, June 1, the lead local agency – the Chenango United Way – is spearheading an army of community volunteers to pull off yet another successful event that in 2015 performed nearly 15,000 procedures to some 2,400 patients at no cost – a value of more than $1.3 million.

“This was a great opportunity for our entire community in 2015, and we're pleased that the United Way was able to negotiate a contract for this to happen for a second year, right here in Chenango County,” said Victoria Mitchell who works as an administrator for the Chenango United Way (CUW).

For those unfamiliar, the military IRT is a Department of Defense (DOD) training exercise which provides real world training scenarios to military personnel and service members, all while supporting the needs of rural, under-served and economically challenged communities.

According to Mitchell and CUW Executive Director Elizabeth Monaco, the IRT will bring roughly 160 board certified physicians and practitioners from across the county to a temporary clinic based at the Norwich High School campus.