NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — The Mission medical team held back-to-back clinics on Monhegan island (March 3) and Matinicus island (March 4). Sunbeam Captain Mike Johnson, Engineer Storey King, and Steward Jillian, were resting from their second Covid-19 vaccinations, so the medical team traveled to these two islands by means other than aboard the Mission’s boat, Sunbeam.
Monhegan Boat Lines’s Laura B carried the team to-and-from Monhegan. The team was Island Services Director Sharon Daley, RN; Maureen Giffin, RN; Peggy Akers, NP; Island Outreach Director Douglas Cornman, and Mission President John Zavodny.
Forty three people received vaccinations at the Monhegan Community Church and Parsonage. The crew of the Laura B was good enough to hold the boat to allow time for the medical team to finish its work and travel back to the pier aboard a Kubota 4×4.
The following day, the Mission’s old friend, Penobscot Island Air, carried the same team by air to-and-from the Matinicus Island International Air-Strip. The airport is named somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It is a strip of land cut through a grove of pine trees.
The team was also joined again by Boston Globe photographer Erin Clark, and Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie. Erin’s wonderful photos accompanied Brian’s fine story in the March 9 Boston Globe.
Thirty one people received vaccinations at Matinicus Island School.
President Zavodny produced a video vignette with narration capturing the flavor and highlights of the Monhegan clinic.