On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons this fall, a modest building at 79 Marshall Road in Bangor will hum with activity that most people never see. There, graduate students in white coats will greet patients who have nowhere else to turn — people with aching shoulders, healing surgical scars, or the kind of chronic pain that comes from years of hard work and no health insurance. They will be examined, treated, and listened to, all at no cost. The SOARing Eagles Healthcare Clinic reopens September 16–17 for the fall 2026 semester, continuing a mission that began more than a decade ago and has now delivered over half a million dollars in free physical therapy services to the greater Bangor community.
For Dr. Kimberly Steinbarger, the clinic's director and an assistant professor in Husson University's School of Physical Therapy, the reopening is another chapter in a story she started writing years ago. Steinbarger had long been mulling the idea of a pro bono clinic when she realized her university was the ideal place to build one. "I realized Husson would be a perfect place since we provide education in so many health professions," she later explained. She created a student board of directors to help shape the vision, then held a contest to name the new endeavor. Students voted, and SOARing was born — an acronym that spells out the program's larger purpose: Student Operated Accessible Rehab.
When SOARing Eagles Healthcare began accepting patients in 2014, it did so in borrowed space. The owner of Dragonfly Therapy in Bangor had generously offered the use of the facility on Fridays, when the practice was closed. It was a small start — a handful of appointments squeezed into a single afternoon each week — but it planted a seed that has grown steadily. In late 2016, occupational therapy was added to the clinic's offerings. Then, in the fall of 2021, the clinic moved into its current home at the Marshall Road facility, a space that finally gave the program room to expand its hours and its reach.
Today, the clinic is staffed by physical therapy students under the supervision of their Husson professors. First-year graduate students are paired with experienced second-year students, allowing them to learn from one another in a real clinical setting. Working at the clinic is a required rotation for new fourth-year physical therapy students, easing them into professional practice with real patients and real problems. After that first placement, participation becomes voluntary — yet students keep coming back.
Steinbarger's enthusiasm for the clinic is palpable in the way she describes the patient experience. "I explain to the patients that they're going to have more attention in this clinic than they've ever had in their life," she said. "This immediately connects them with a whole group of students who are extremely focused and knowledgeable. Because Husson provides the latest, research-backed education to its students, these patients are receiving cutting-edge healthcare for free."
The clinic's patient population is as varied as the community it serves. Anyone who is uninsured or underinsured — of any age, with any condition from sports injuries to post-surgical recovery, chronic pain to functional disabilities — can make an appointment and receive an evaluation and treatment at no cost. For people who have been putting off care because they couldn't afford it, the clinic represents not just a savings but a doorway back into healthcare.
This semester brings a new addition to the clinic's toolkit: the Mobile PT Boxes. Introduced in the spring of 2026 with the help of a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, these portable kits allow students to conduct physical therapy screenings off-site, at locations such as assisted living facilities and community centers. The boxes extend the clinic's reach far beyond Marshall Road, taking the program's services directly into parts of the community where transportation, mobility, or time constraints might otherwise keep people from seeking care.
The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation grant reflects a long tradition of local philanthropy in Bangor — the Kings, longtime Bangor residents, have supported numerous health and community initiatives across the region. For SOARing Eagles, the grant enabled a leap from a static clinic model to a mobile one, giving students the ability to pack up assessment tools and bring screenings to people who need them most.
As the clinic opens for the fall semester, Steinbarger strikes a note of gratitude for what the program has become. "We are so pleased to continue bridging the gap for uninsured and underinsured patients in the greater Bangor community," she said. "Our patients are able to receive individualized holistic treatment, while our students prepare for the rigors of the workplace."
The clinic will be open Wednesday and Thursday afternoons by appointment, beginning September 16–17 and continuing through mid-December. Appointments can be made by calling 207-941-7181 or emailing [email protected]. For those who qualify, no insurance card is required — only a willingness to walk through the door.
In an era when healthcare costs continue to climb and access remains uneven, the SOARing Eagles Healthcare Clinic stands as a practical model of what a university and a community can accomplish together. It trains the next generation of physical therapists in the values of empathy and service, while simultaneously filling a gap that no other institution in the Bangor area addresses. And it does so quietly, week after week, appointment by appointment — a decade of care that, for hundreds of patients, has made all the difference.