After nearly four and a half months in operation and more than 68,700 vaccinations administered, June 24 marked the final day of operation for the COVID-19 vaccination site at Germantown Baptist Church.
Operated by the City of Germantown and the Town of Collierville in cooperation with the City of Memphis, the site was opened in an effort to make COVID-19 vaccinations easily accessible for those living and working in eastern Shelby County.
\u201cWe saw a problem and we devised a solution,\u201d said Germantown City Administrator Patrick Lawton.
With the closest public vaccination site located almost 20 miles away with long lines and wait times, Lawton reached out to Collierville City Administrator James Lewellen to form a partnership.
A few short weeks later the Germantown Baptist Church vaccination site was up and running smoothly, distributing up to 2,185 vaccinations a day at peak demand.
\u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that staff\u2019s experience with process improvement made this endeavor possible,\u201d said Mayor Mike Palazzolo of the work done to set up the vaccination site.
With just a few days notice, tents were erected, cones were placed, generators were moved in and City and Town staff took their places, excited to help stop the spread of the disease and ultimately save lives.
\u201cDespite the cold, wind and rain, staff stepped up knowing that this was a chance to help us get back to normal,\u201d said Stacey Ewell, who helped coordinate non-medical and volunteer staff for the vaccination site. \u201cWhile the Fire and Police departments help keep the community safe every day, this was a chance for the rest of the City workforce to really make a difference.\u201d
From Germantown employees alone, over 11,680 hours were served at the site. Germantown Fire logged more than 6,320 hours, Germantown Police over 1,300 hours and general employees put in more than 4,050 hours.
The entire cost of these hours, over $673,000, is being reimbursed by the Centers for Disease Control via the City of Memphis.
In all, the City of Germantown anticipates a reimbursement of close to $1 million for expenses related to the overall operation of the site, including infrastructure and supplies.
Once the site was up and running smoothly, Germantown leveraged its relationship with Volunteer Odyssey to transition non-medical staff out and volunteers in.
\u201cWe are proud to partner with the City of Germantown and the Town of Collierville for this vaccination effort,\u201d said Dr. Sarah Petschonek, Founder and Executive Director of Volunteer Odyssey. \u201cTheir commitment to excellence and collaborative spirit allowed us to co-create the ideal volunteer experience. This diverse group of more than 800 volunteers helped save hundreds of lives in our community,\u201d Dr. Petschonek added.
In all, these volunteers worked more than 7,930 hours at the Germantown vaccination site alone.
Those hours have a total value of $186,378.
\u201cI\u2019ve met some amazing people and made new friends in my role,\u201d said Jonni Holdsworth, who started off as a volunteer and was later hired to coordinate volunteers as City staff returned to the office.
Holdsworth alone logged 150 volunteer hours at the site.
\u201cI am so very pleased with the outcome of our efforts,\u201d said Lawton. \u201cI watched as our staff worked tirelessly to meet the challenges of freezing temperatures, unrelenting rain and shortages in vaccine supply then shortages in demand with unbelievable determination.
\u201cThese employees and volunteers are true public servants. I am truly grateful and honored to work with each and every one of them,\u201d Lawton added.<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After nearly four and a half months in operation and more than 68,700 vaccinations administered, June 24 marked the final day of operation for the COVID-19 vaccination site at Germantown Baptist Church.Operated by the City of Germantown and the Town of Collierville in cooperation with the City of Memphis, the site was opened in an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[246,239,244,248],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelby-news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}