By JOEL FRAM

Unlike dentists and sur­geons, podiatrists are able to carry on two-way conversations with patients during treatment. Getting to know their patients is one of the reasons Drs. Eric Ricefield and Mark Yagodich of Your Next Step in Ardmore enjoy their practice. And knowing their patients is an aspect of being part of their community, which extends naturally to helping to those who are less fortunate than they.

This Thanksgiving, Your Next Step organized its third food drive to provide holiday dinners for fami­lies in this area. They solicited con­tributions from local businesses to purchase gift certificates to Acme Supermarkets for ready-made Thanksgiving dinners that include an eight-pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, cran­berry sauce and a pumpkin pie. The gift certificates were given to local schools, churches and syna­gogues, which distributed them to families they know who would have difficulty paying for such a meal on their own. This year, over $2,600 was collected, providing Thanksgiving dinners for more than 75 families.

"We consider ourselves to be quite fortunate," Ricefield says, "and we feel we should give back to the community."

The Thanksgiving food drive is one of several ways the partners do this. In a Halloween candy buyback program, they paid kids 50 cents a pound for their Halloween candy, providing kids a way to earn from their trick-or-treat "haul" rather than devour it; the candy itself was given to a homeless shelter which gave it to its clients a substitute for drugs and alcohol. At Christmastime, Your Next Step serves as a depository for the Marine's Toys for Tots program. In the beginning of each year, the practice sponsors a Do a Good Deed Contest in which children are asked to write essays about good deeds they have performed. The winner receives a computer, and the runners-up receive Circuit City gift certificates; all entrants receive a small gift just for entering. Perhaps most directly appropriate for a podiatry practice, Your Next Step sponsored a shoe drive for Hurricane Katrina victims in which over 500 pairs of shoes, new and used, were collected and sent south.

Dr. Ricefield, 46, began Your Next Step in Ardmore 18 years ago; after seven years, Dr. Yagodich, 38, joined the practice. Ricefield, who grew up in Wynnewood, lives in Berwyn with his wife, KellyAnn, and their 2-year-old son, Joshua. Yagodich, a native of Medford, N.J., lives in Bryn Mawr with his wife, Mary, and their daughters, Grace and Caroline, aged 5 and 7. Both doctors attended the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, where they met, and both say that their favorite pastime is spending time with their families. Their Ardmore practice is in a mod­ern office on Rittenhouse Place; they have a second office in Paoli. Ricefield serves on the board of the Ardmore Senior Center and Yagodich on the board of Home Nurse.

The idea for the Thanksgiving food drive emerged when - true to form - Dr. Ricefield was talking with one of his patients, Father Burke of St. Norbert's Church of Paoli, and Ricefield said that he wanted to do more for those in need. Burke suggested a holiday food program, and Ricefield took it from there. The response from the business community has been grat­ifying, as have been the apprecia­tive letters they've received from those who have received the din­ners.

"It's wonderful to be able to pro­vide our service not only in our pro­fessional endeavors," Ricefield says, "but also to be known for doing something for our community".

For more information about Your Next Step's programs, contact the practice's director of patient relations, Jacquelyn Smith, at 610-642-8837.

Joel Pram is a regular contributor to the Main Line Times. To suggest a Volunteer of the