On Saturday morning, around 120 vaccine doses were administered to south Phoenix residents during a special vaccination event held at Grant Park, near 3rd Avenue and Lincoln Street.
The event followed a door-to-door registration and education drive organized by Wesley Community Health Centers, around 30 volunteers and community leader Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband.
“People trust the neighborhood… they trust the volunteers we’re sending out… they know us and they’ll sign up for the shot, which is their life,” Wilcox told ABC15.
Recent studies have shown — in part, due to reduced internet access and hesitancy — minority communities lag behind when it comes to overall vaccination rates. Wilcox said she’s working to change those findings and hopes this initial event will serve as a model and grow the comfort level in her community.
“What we’d like to do is if this is successful … we will go ahead and schedule one, hopefully, in two weeks,” she said.
Vaccines were administered to both drive-up and walk-up patients who pre-registered and qualify under state guidelines.
“I wasn’t so sure about getting the vaccine at first,” Angelina Chavez told ABC15. Chavez and her daughter, Cassie, were among the first to receive their doses at the Grant Park event and both dealt with “pretty bad” cases of COVID-19 over the past year.
“Once we did get sick and it hit our family personally, it changed our minds,” she said. “Hopefully, just someone listening to us, will just get the vaccine and not have to go through having COVID.”
