Sitting in front of an Athenian mural with her colleagues from Charger and Mountie territories watching, Southmont’s Samantha Cotten gripped Mountie Man’s hand as a community paramedic injected a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine into her arm.
“I didn’t know it could be so exciting to get a shot,” Cotten said after rolling down her sleeve, becoming one of the first school workers in Montgomery County to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Cotten was among 30 educators from the three local districts to be selected for a first-of-its-kind vaccine clinic through a partnership with the districts, the Crawfordsville Fire Department and the Montgomery County Health Department.
Moments after Gov. Eric Holcomb announced last week school staff would be next in line for the shots, the health department was on the phone with the other agencies to set a plan in motion for getting the doses into the arms of local teachers.
Members of the fire department’s Mobile Integrated Unit, which started a state-funded vaccination and immunization program last year, agreed to do the vaccinations and Crawfordsville High School offered its auxiliary gym for the clinic.
“You the teachers are the unsung heroes of this pandemic because you’ve been working almost every day, and we’re sure excited to get you vaccinated,” fire chief Scott Busenbark told the educators.
An additional 400 teachers are expected to be vaccinated Friday during another clinic for Montgomery County pre-K-12 educators, staff and support staff at the South Boulevard site.
“I always talk about the light at the end of the tunnel,” Mayor Todd Barton said in remarks to the school workers. “This is that light at the end of the tunnel.”
Carrie Jones, a fifth grade teacher at Hoover Elementary, had already registered for a vaccine at Walmart through the federal pharmacy program, but her appointment was still a couple of weeks away.
As she struggled to find an open slot at a local pharmacy, Jones said she even considered driving to Illinois until she learned vaccines were only being given to educators licensed to teach in the state.
“It does feel like a breath of fresh air to be on the other side of things,” Jones said.
Pleasant Hill Elementary instructional coach Laura Kuhn also went searching for a vaccine at a pharmacy, with the nearest appointment available in Danville, Indiana. She had signed up at a Meijer in West Lafayette before Monday’s clinic was announced.
Montgomery County’s approach to vaccinating educators was praised by Indiana State Teachers Association President Keith Gambill, who watched the staff members roll up their sleeves.
Expanding eligibility to teachers speaks to ISTA’s position that “in order to really get the community back in good shape, we need to stabilize what’s happening in our schools, and the best way to do that is to get our educators vaccinated,” Gambill said.
The three superintendents said the vaccine partnership was made possible by the ongoing discussions between the schools and local health professionals throughout the pandemic.
“To see school staff get this vaccine is like a long overdue thank you from our journey that started over a year ago,” North Montgomery superintendent Dr. Colleen Moran said.
To register for a vaccine at Friday’s clinic, educators can email their name, date of birth, cell phone number and school affiliation to vaccine@montgomerycounty.in.gov. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
