Saturday, March 13th:
Cara Direct Care staff were delighted to assist with filling vaccine appointment spots in a mammoth vaccine clinic set up by the Village, Senior Center and District 101 Staff, with vaccine administration by Osco pharmacists. This project started with the vision of Village Senior Center and District 101 leaders, who had hosted smaller clinics a few weeks prior. The effort snowballed for this clinic as more names were collected, our village was able to provide a larger venue with logistic support, and Osco could offer more vaccines.
The clinic served 1600+ of our most vulnerable community members. All seniors who applied got a vaccine and many local essential workers and high risk individuals were also served.
We are especially grateful to our Cara Direct Care patients and community members who showed up to help and stayed all day, or provided transport to some patients. You know who you are :) We thank you for your service in this important mission!
This truly was a memorable day, one to erase some of the pain and suffering of this past year. We hope that other villages will consider hosting similar mass vaccine clinics in the future.
Further information and photos in the links below:
Our waitlist team monitored no shows and got as many off the waitlist in for their vaccine as possible.
L>R:
- Christine Blanek - has already helped 70+ seniors find vaccines prior to this clinic, and manned the front desk of the wailist with a smile!
- Paula Tomczyk, Cara Direct Care Office manager had the perfect half and half day.....AM she served as a Western Springs firefighter, and PM, she provided admin support for us. She's an all around gal!
(We would like to thank John Mastandona for admin support also)
St John of the Cross Parish School Nurse Laurie Petersen continues to work hard for our community to fight the Covid Pandemic. Laurie has had the busiest school year ever and yet found the energy to invest in this community effort. Our family is very grateful to Laurie and all the SJC staff for keeping SJC Covid 19 transmission free so that our kids could stay in school all year!
The clinic served 50 people every 15 minutes and was manned by Osco Pharmacists, Village and D101 staff and community volunteers.