The work earned him a nomination for 52 Faces of Community<\/a>, the Fort Worth Report\u2019s weekly series highlighting unsung local heroes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I think humans are programmed to help each other,\u201d Rheams said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of what makes us tick, and it\u2019s so easy to get caught up in careers and competition and all these things when what really gives us joy is a simple act of kindness toward another human.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Every other Tuesday, Rheams and students spend two hours at Glenwood Park offering health screenings, vaccinations and medical counseling while distributing flashlights, clothing, food and other necessities.\u00a0<\/p>\n With guidance from Rheams and other health professionals, students interview the patients about their medical histories, check blood pressure and blood sugar. A nearby JPS Health Network van offers prescriptions and additional care. The Love and Light Ministries provides social workers and meals.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could be half the doctor he is, I would be very lucky.”<\/p>\n Rebecca Zapata-Smith, UNT Health’s fourth-year medical student<\/p>\n Rheams also volunteers at UNT Health\u2019s Homeless Outreach through Medical Education Clinic and has served at Beautiful Feet Ministries, another group that serves people experiencing poverty and homelessness.<\/p>\n \u201cThese folks are so happy to have us there in any way that we could help them, and they have been so kind to us and so open to receiving care when it\u2019s provided in a caring and nonjudgmental way, in a place where they feel safe and literally in their own homes,\u201d Rheams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heather Dixon, founder and executive director of Love and Light Ministries, said Rheams keeps looking for ways to serve, from bringing students into street medicine to donating to the nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very well respected by the people that we serve because they see that gentleness, that kindness,\u201d Dixon said.<\/p>\n The coalition began with three first-year medical students led by Rebecca Zapata-Smith and Madison Stevens. They needed a faculty sponsor, and Rheams agreed before they finished their pitch.<\/p>\n He knew little about street medicine, but his hospital years had shown him why it mattered. Patients without homes could lose their belongings or pets while hospitalized. Discharge plans could unravel when there was nowhere to recover or receive follow-up care. The experience can deepen a distrust that existed before the patient entered the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t trust us to have their best interest at heart,\u201d Rheams said. \u201cThey don\u2019t think we understand them because, largely, we don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Street medicine helps rebuild that trust. Students return to places where people feel safe. They learn names, meet families and hear stories they might otherwise miss, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. Scott Ewing, the coalition\u2019s fellow faculty adviser and UNT Health\u2019s assistant professor, sees that connection in small gestures. When Ewing first started with the coalition, Rheams introduced him to people by their names \u2014 or preferred nicknames. When someone needs to talk, Rheams sits beside them on a curb in the parking lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zapata-Smith, a fourth-year medical student who helped start the coalition, recalls a woman who told Rheams she was vomiting blood. The woman feared going to a hospital because of her previous experience. Rheams helped calm her and called her an ambulance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rheams and his wife, Amy, bought the group\u2019s first table, chairs and medical supplies, Zapata-Smith said. He remained a familiar face as student leaders changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could be half the doctor he is, I would be very lucky,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rheams\u2019 service began decades earlier, baking bread in the 1980s at Christian Service Hospitality House, a Shreveport, Louisiana, soup kitchen. His faith drew him to both service and medicine, he said.<\/p>\n During his busiest years, he contributed money when volunteer time was scarce. Street medicine has brought him back to the desire to heal and serve people, which could get buried beneath hospital routines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI tell the students it\u2019s the purest form of medicine they will ever practice,\u201d Rheams said. \u201cThese people can\u2019t do anything to reimburse us other than say, \u2018Thank you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dozens of students have volunteered during the coalition\u2019s first three years, Rheams said. UNT Health\u2019s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine now offers a monthlong street medicine elective for fourth-year students.\u00a0<\/p>\n Students work in JPS clinics, ride along in its van and serve at HOME Clinic and Beautiful Feet Ministries, Ewing said. They also visit encampments and help residents get to medical and housing appointments with Love and Light volunteers, Dixon said.<\/p>\n Ewing said Rheams\u2019 kindness inspires him to be more patient with students and more involved in street medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven though he\u2019s only a year older than me, I\u2019m still hopeful that he can take me under his wing,\u201d Ewing said.<\/p>\n Rheams keeps the coalition student-led, providing continuity as its leaders change. The students\u2019 energy stays with him after Tuesday nights. So does the joy of giving care without expecting anything in return.\u00a0<\/p>\n He hopes they carry these lessons into their practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest lesson, I think, is that there\u2019s something about serving people who cannot repay you that\u2019s joyous \u2014 about using your skills simply for someone else\u2019s good, just very simply and directly,\u201d Rheams said. \u201cIt makes you feel more human. It makes you feel more alive. It makes you feel more grateful for all the opportunities in life that you have.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenny offered him a glimpse \u2014 and reminder \u2014 of that joy as Rheams\u2019 first street medicine patient. They shared a hometown, a neighborhood and a football team that kept disappointing them, yet their lives had gone in different directions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rheams had come to the park to care for people without homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there, he was reminded of where he came from \u2014 and why he entered medicine more than four decades ago.<\/p>\n Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n The Report\u2019s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8391-810x1024.jpeg\")
Dr. Christopher Rheams, right, checks on a patient during a session with UNT Health Fort Worth\u2019s Street Medicine Student Coalition. (Courtesy | Rebecca Zapata-Smith)<\/p>\n