Supporting Yamhill County vaccination efforts, Aug. 6

When Katrina Doughty, Regional Field Operations Coordinator for OHA’s COVID Response and Recovery Unit (CRRU), first thought about where to set up a clinic in Yamhill County, she thought of the casino. Doughty had worked for the AmeriCorps VISTA program in Yamhill County and knew the casino was located in a heavily trafficked area. Through a contact at Grand Ronde Health and Wellness Center, Doughty got in touch with Spirit Mountain Casino’s general manager. “The general manager was very excited, had a phone call with me, just basically right away said we would love to do something like that. We think it would be important for our staff and for our families,” recalled Doughty. “Very quickly, they let us know that they were invested in making sure this was a success too. They created promotional material, and they offered up resources to be given as incentives.” The road past Spirit Mountain Casino often has slow traffic, so Doughty spent time alongside the road waving people down and asking if they had gotten the vaccine. They would ask her what was going on with the traffic and she would answer, “I’m not sure, but there’s restrooms here and there’s COVID-19 vaccines.” One dad who hadn’t found easy access to Pfizer, yelled through his car window, “Do you vaccinate kids?” Doughty was able to say yes. They pulled in for a vaccine. Vaccinations at Spirit Mountain Casino continue through today, August 5, until 7 p.m. The clinic offers both the Johnson & Johnson single dose and both first and second doses of the two dose Pfizer series.
Read the full story on the Oregon Vaccine News blog.