NILES — Friday afternoon, the sound of hammering and sawing reverberated from the second floor of Wesley United Methodist Church, as construction crews put the finishing touches on a health clinic that will serve those without insurance.

Herbie Health Clinic opened Saturday at the church, located at 302 Cedar St. The clinic will serve adults who do not have health insurance. The clinic will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of each month. Patients can receive routine medical care, some labs run on site and medications. Patients need to bring an ID card and proof of address to be served.

After moving the clinic from Benton Harbor so that she could serve more patients, Dr. Sherry O’Donnell, a co-founder and operator of the clinic, said she was glad to finally open the doors to the new clinic’s location Saturday.

“It feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s exciting and [I am] relieved,” O’Donnell said. “It has been relentless work, kind of around the clock oftentimes.”

For the past week, O’Donnell, volunteers and construction crews worked to transform the former classroom space in the church’s second floor into a working clinic. In addition to transferring equipment, walls had to be built to create five individual exam rooms.

There was a minor hang-up when O’Donnell said she found out she needed a building permit, despite initially being told that they did not need it. This delayed construction for two days. On Friday, workers made up for lost time and were still able to open the doors to patients on Saturday.

While O’Donnell was expecting about 100 patients, only about 20 showed up Saturday. She said there seemed to be some misinformation that the clinic is for homeless people, when in fact Herbie’s cannot help homeless people. Regardless, she said the first day of operation still went well.

“I think they went very, very well,” O’Donnell said. “It was fantastic being in a new facility.”

O’Donnell is a doctor of osteopathic medicine and operates her own practice called Rappha Medical Center in St. Joseph. She was inspired to open the clinic after seeing many patients lose their health insurance and therefore their access to medical care. O’Donnell and a former practice administrator, Sandi Lemley, felt that they had to do something about it. The women started the clinic and named it after missionary doctor Herb Atkinson.

Herbie Health Clinic has since operated in Benton Harbor, but recently O’Donnell said she saw more of a need in communities like Niles, where there are fewer outreach options.

“One of the reasons we opened here was that our [patient] numbers started to decline,” O’Donnell said. “We felt like south county needed something like this.”

At the most, O’Donnell said the clinic had served between 120 to 130 people in Benton Harbor, but in the past couple of months, O’Donnell said she has only seen about half the number of patients.

With the new location of the clinic near the downtown corridor, O’Donnell said she thinks it will help to put them on the map, while also attracting more people in need.

“The word is getting out and the feedback that we are getting is that it is amazing that something from north county has come to south county,” O’Donnell said. “So, I think for a long time Niles has felt like the fair-haired step child. Well, we are going to change that.”

Herbie Health Clinic is funded by community donations and patients are not required to pay anything. All doctors who serve the clinic are volunteers for the nonprofit. O’Donnell said they are always looking for volunteers to assist. To learn more, visit: herbieclinic.com.