Community ‘thank you!’

To the Editor:

I’m writing today to publicly acknowledge and thank our community members who have come forward to assist us with the COVID-19 pandemic response and the now very busy community vaccination clinic.

Collaboration between the hospital and local first responder agencies started early in the pandemic nearly a year ago, with Franklin County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Tim Hardy and others participating on the hospital’s incident command system meetings each week.

Now with more than 240 patients entering our facility to receive their shots each day, they are greeted by volunteers organized by Hardy, rotating through four-hour shifts. These helpers, a combination of first responders and others who have worked with EMA in the past, as well as former hospital employees who are now retired, greet patients, help direct incoming and outgoing vaccine recipients, provide assistance to the wheelchair-bound, and move cars, among other tasks to enable the clinic to run so smoothly.

They include: Ted Baxter, Denise Bell, Terry Bell, Steve Bunker, Bill Colwell, Tom Doak, Dr. David Dixon, Bill Fox, Fran Fox, Randy Gauvin, Ruth Gauvin, Jeff Jenks, Courtney Knapp, Debbie Knapp, Al McDaniel, Becky Morin, Russ Norris, Clyde Ross, Al Sleight, Lisa Sleight, Matt Smith, Linda Smith, Lloyd Smith, John Tarbox, Junior Turner, Stan Wheeler, and Anne Wehrman.

Thank you to all who help make our COVID vaccination experience friendly, efficient and pleasant. These valuable individuals are in the trenches taking care of our neighbors, families and friends. Please thank them when you see them.