Health + Care: a comic strip salutes 10 years of Seattle/King County Clinic

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It’s been over ten years since Seattle Center invited Public Health – Seattle & King County to join an ambitious effort to stand-up a massive pop-up clinic. The doors opened to Seattle/King County Clinic in KeyArena in 2014, with free medical, dental and vision care. We didn’t imagine then that it would become the largest community-driven free health clinic of its kind in the United States!

We are enormously proud to be one of the over one hundred organizations that continue to make this free healthcare opportunity happen. At the same time, we’re keenly aware that ongoing barriers to healthcare access result in the massive number of patients who depend on Seattle/King County Clinic. At the tenth annual clinic, we talked to organizers, volunteers, and patients about the achievements of this community endeavor and their hopes that one day the clinic will no longer be needed. Right now, that goal seems further away than ever, but incremental change can get us closer.

With the Seattle Center Foundation, we’ve collaborated with a team of comics artists to tell stories about the challenges that everyday people have with getting the healthcare they need. We hope that the stories will spark conversations about what can be done to close these gaps and make the need for the Seattle/King County Clinic obsolete. “Health + Care” is the first from this comics collection.

Title page of comic strip. Public health worker wonders what Seattle Center can be thinking in holding a pop-up clinic.
Julia Colson, founder of Seattle/King County Clinic, discusses here idea of turning KeyArena into a giant free clinic. A public health worker is skeptical.
Illustration of the first Seattle/King County Clinic in 2014, with the dental floor in a basketball arena in the background. Julia is talking to other clinic organizers about how the volunteers from the community are already asking if they can do the clinic again in a year or two.
In 2025, Julia stands on the staircase in a performance hall as leads of tour of the clinic. She notes that the goal was never for the clinic to be a long-term endeavor, but that it's still going.
The lobby of McCaw Hall, a performance hall, is set up as a medical clinic. A patient looks up in awe and expresses gratitude to a volunteer.
As the volunteer walks the patient through the clinic, he asks if she has volunteered before. She says she's been there since the very beginning.
Outside the clinic in 2020, just before the COVID-19 lockdown. A volunteer asks patients waiting in a line if they have any symptoms.
At the 2025 clinic, Julia explains to her tour group that the health system is worse after the pandemic. The clinic now treats many in the "missing middle" who can't afford the high cost of living.
Two patients waiting at the clinic are in conversation. An older woman with gray hair and light skin tells a woman with black braids and brown skin about her difficulty getting glasses because the insurance she can afford doesn't cover vision.
The patient with black braids shares with the patient with grey hair that it's been hard to navigate the healthcare system. She says it's nearly impossible to find a dentist who will take Apple Health insurance and months to get an appointment.
Close up of Julia at the Seattle/King County Clinic telling the public health worker that she'd love to see the clinic go out of business. The public health worker asks what she means.
Julia and the public health worker standing on a balcony. Julia expresses that she doesn't want people to have to rely on the clinic once a year. She wants them to get care when they need it. She expresses disappointment that there's not more understanding of the need to care for the community.
A distant shot of Julia and the public health worker looking over the busy dental floor at the clinic. Julia says that the clinic serves 3,000 patients a year, but it barely scratches the surface of what needs to be done. It breaks her heart.
The public health worker asks Julia if the need motivates her as they look over the dental floor. Julia replies that it absolutely does, and she continues to uplifted by the supportive community involved in the clinic.
The patient with the black braids thanks two volunteer dentists who offer her an electric toothbrush. Julia's narration says that they hear from volunteers and patients about how much they feel the community.
The patient with the black braids thanks a volunteer who hands her an electric toothbrush in a box. She has a tear in her eye as she tells him how nice everyone is and how the clinic feels like the world she loves, the best of humanity.
The patient with the grey hair is getting a vision exam. She asks the vision provider why she spends her day off at the clinic. The smiling vision provider tells here she doesn't have to worry about billing or paperworks. She can just focus on helping the patient, which is why most people go into healthcare.
The patient with the grey hair tells Julia as she leaves the vision area that she wishes people could look to the clinic and turn the health business back into health care.

More information about Seattle/King County Clinic

The next clinic will be held April 23-26, 2026 at Seattle Center. Volunteers are the heart of the project and there is always a need volunteers for general support and interpretation, as well as for medical, dental, and vision roles. To learn more about Seattle/King County Clinic: Seattle/King County Clinic – Seattle Center Foundation

Stayed tuned for more comics from this collection inspired by Seattle/King County Clinic!

Originally published on July 22, 2025.

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I am a risk communications specialist at Public Health - Seattle & King County.