MRC Summer Events Recap

As the rain pounds the roof outside and the winds whips the tree branches around, it make me long for summer with warm, dry, weather and the plethora of activities that the Medical Reserve Corps participates in.  So as the rain continues to come down, I thought I might brighten this dreary day with a recap of the summer events that the MRC participated in.

Pertussis Response Vaccine Clinics

When the MRC was activated to support the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department in May, little did we know that we would be providing such an overwhelming response to the Pertussis Epidemic in Washington State.  We began with our first clinic on May 19th hosted here a the Health department.  We saw over 100 people come through our clinic to receive their Pertussis vaccine, and I do not think it could have been more successful.  I guess neither did the health department, as they began to lay plans for us to participate in more clinics. 

Our very own Dr. Yu and two our our MRC volunteers took their show on the road and headed up to Nisqually to provide Pertussis vaccine at a community event.  We held our next clinic out at the annual Yelm Prairie Days festival where we had a booth and dispense vaccine out in the community.  The Nurse Family Partnership (a great program here at the Health department) asked us to put on a small clinic for its members in June.  We held another clinic at the Union Gospel Mission on July 19th, which happened to be during Lakefair, and we were able to send out a team to dispense vaccine out at the fair.  That wouldn't be the last fair we were seen at dispensing vaccine, we even managed to sneak our way into the Thurston County Fair if you could believe it giving our shots on the opening and closing day of the fair.

The fair ended our Pertussis only clinics, as our vision for our clinics changed, and we began to plan for  Back to School Vaccine Clinics.  We held these clinics in three consecutive weekends with the main focus of delivering required vaccine for children for school.  However, this did not stop us from continuing our Pertussis response efforts and "sticking" the parents too!

Paddle to Squaxin:Tribal Canoe Journey

We really got lucky this summer by being asked to be part of such a spectacular event.  The Paddle to Squaxin was not in our original summer events list, but when we were asked to participate, how could we say no? 

The Paddle to Squaxin is part of a Native American event that has been going on for the last 20 years or so, where the tribes of the Northwest paddle from their homes to another tribe and have a week long festival.  I am sure my summary did not do this event justice, but just imagine, over 100 canoes carrying roughly 15 people in each canoe landing on the shore in the Port of Olympia, with over 10,000 spectators, and you can just imagine the grandeur of this event.

We took this as an opportunity to train, and we stood up first aid tents at the main landing site, but also the soft landing (the pre-landing site if you will) and provided first aid to the paddlers and the spectators.  you could just imagine the blisters that were seen, some of these paddlers have been going at it for over a month!

With the Canoes landing on the shore, they made their way to the Squaxin Island Tribe where they continue on with there week long festivities.  During the week long event some of our volunteers staffed the first aid clinic out there to provide support for the overwhelming number of people congregating in the Squaxin Island Tribe.

These are just two of the major events, that the MRC participated in this summer, check back regularly as I will continue to post of the happenings of the MRC, there are always more raining days in the future!