In retirement, Frank Male has found volunteering as a way to get out of the house and give back to the community. This spring, as the call went out for volunteers at the Douglas County vaccine clinics, Male found himself a volunteer at the clinic nine times.
Male said he saw a notice in the newspaper about signing up to volunteer at the Douglas County Fairgrounds and decided to sign up.
“When the call goes out and there weren’t very many answers, it was disheartening,” Male said. “So I was glad to start going, and after a bit they had enough people.”
At the fairgrounds, the 87-year-old from Eudora filled a number of roles. He helped to direct traffic through the “well-oiled machine” that was the drive-thru clinic, and sometimes he got to help gather people’s information, which he said he liked because it allowed him to interact more with the people.
“You could talk with the people and make a few jokes with them and things like that,” Male said. “Directing traffic is kind of a boring thing, but it needed to be done.”
George Diepenbrock, the communications officer at Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said the volunteers were an essential part of the fairgrounds clinics.
“It just took so many people that every volunteer was crucial to the operation,” Diepenbrock said. “It added to our resources and the amount of people we could [have] to make that site successful and all the vaccinations as efficient as possible.”
According to Diepenbrock, each of the 26 clinics at the Douglas County Fairgrounds saw between 100 and 200 volunteers.
As of last Thursday, 54,258 first doses and 44,924 second doses of the COVID vaccines have been administered in Douglas County.
Male said his volunteer work at the clinic tapered off as his other volunteer gig, tending to a garden on the University of Kansas campus, needed his attention.
Male has volunteered to tend this garden in front of Audio-Reader since the early ‘90s and also helps with Red Cross and church volunteer opportunities across town.
“I was just happy to be able to help the community,” Male said.
Douglas County partners are no longer conducting vaccination clinics at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, but are offering weekday vaccination clinics at LMH Health Those interested in volunteering at one of these clinics can email [email protected].
To schedule a vaccine appointment, visit LDCHealth.org/COVIDVaccine.
Transparency note: In addition to being a reporter for The Eudora Times, Cami Koons is a communications intern for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.
Reach reporter Cami Koons at [email protected].
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