Editor’s note: The Friday, Feb. 19 clinic in Upshur County has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 24 due to expected winter weather.
BUCKHANNON – Eight members of the Rotary Club of Buckhannon-Upshur volunteer at each COVID-19 vaccination clinic every Friday.
Lisa Wharton, vice president for marketing, public relations and Foundation for St. Joseph’s Hospital, said the club became a sponsor with six other agencies to host a community vaccination clinic at the Event Center at Brushy Fork located at 929 Brushy Fork Road in Buckhannon. All vaccines will be given by appointment only.
Wharton gave an update about the clinics during the Feb. 16 Buckhannon-Upshur Rotary meeting.
“The clinic right now runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s dependent every week on how many vaccines we get, and we just don’t know until we hear from the state,” Wharton said. “I think it’s going to get very busy on the fourth Friday [of the month] because the first three Fridays will do the first round of 200 or 300 people getting their first dose, then the fourth Friday, we’ll do another round of 200 or 300 people with their first, plus all the previous ones will be coming back for their second dose, so we could potentially have 600 people going through the clinic, so it could get a little crazy.”
Wharton said they could potentially start doing clinics every Friday and Saturday if they get enough vaccines. For more information about receiving the vaccination or for a list of clinics, click here.
“We are also doing a blood drive on Tuesday March 30 from 11 a.m. to 3.m. and we’re sponsoring that with the hospital,” Wharton said. “The cool thing about it is our blood supplier is doing a thing called ‘Save Lives, Feed Families,’ so for everybody that donates blood, they will make a donation to the Parish House, so I think we’re also going to try to do a food drive for the Parish House that same day.”
Wharton said they are also going to offer blood screenings in April and May at the hospital, but they do not have the details finalized yet.
“We’re going try to do 100 per Saturday so we’ll try to get that information out once we figure out the scheduling part,” Wharton said.
Rotary meetings have been taking place virtually on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
