Directors Douglas Cornman & Sharon Daley with Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
Directors Douglas Cornman & Sharon Daley on Great Cranberry island.
Great Cranberry residents waiting for vaccines
NORTHEAST HARBOR — The Mission’s second Covid-19 vaccination clinic trip (Feb. 26-27) relied on the Sunbeam for travel, accommodations, and vaccine safekeeping.
The day began at the Sunbeam‘s berth in Northeast Harbor where the Clinic Team met local tv news multimedia journalists from WABI, Newscenter 6, and WVII to answer questions about the island Covid vaccination clinics.
Photographer Erin Clark, who also traveled with group, captured the clinics in pictures for a piece in the Boston Globe. Ms. Clark tested negative for Covid as a safety precaution.
The two-day trip reached communities on four islands. The first day registered residents were vaccinated on Great Cranberry at the Ladies Aid Community Center, Islesford at Neighborhood House, and Frenchboro inside the Town Office.
The Sunbeam, crew, and medical team then traveled two hours that day to Isle au Haut, overnighted aboard the boat, and held an Isle au Haut vaccination clinic before traveling back to Northeast Harbor the next day.
The Clinic Team for these islands was:
Sharon Daley R.N., Mission Director of Island Health Services (lead nurse)
Maureen Giffin R.N. (visiting nurse)
Douglas Cornman, Mission Director of Island Outreach (The Maine Immunization Information System [ImmPact] vaccination database recorder)
John Zavodny, Mission President (vaccination registrar)
The Sunbeam crew was Mike Johnson (captain), Storey King (engineer), and Jillian (Steward). Directors Daley and Cornman are also Sunbeam crew members.
In total, 75 people were vaccinated at the four clinics.
(L-R Mission President John Zavodny, Director of Island Outreach Douglas Cornman, Monitor Kathy Cheney, Nurse Maureen Giffin, and Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN.)
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – The Mission Covid-19 vaccination clinic team heads out this morning aboard the mailboat, Sea Queen, for clinics on Great Cranberry island and Islesford.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — On the March 3, 2021 Covid-19 vaccination clinic for Monhegan Island residents, Maine Seacoast Mission President Zavodny helped with registrations, took notes and photos. He also captured the flavor of the clinic in this short, self-narrated video.
It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission love goes to nurses Maureen Giffin and Peggy Akers, who have joined Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley – also a nurse – in administering Covid-19 vaccinations to people in our island communities.
“What a pleasure and honor it is to work with two amazing dedicated nurses doing the island Covid Vaccine clinics on the islands,” said Sharon Daley. “There is no way I could do it without them. I’ve called and asked them, “Can you work this day?’, only to call back and changed the day due to vaccine not coming in. Still, their answer is always yes.
“I have called them with numerous questions,” Sharon continued. “Without fail they help me find the answers. Maureen and Peggy have been adaptable to climbing down ladders onto boats, flying on little planes when the wind is howling, and anything else they need to do.
“Most of all,” said Sharon, “they treat each person they meet with care and respect. I am honored to work beside them and call them friends.”
Registered nurse Maureen Giffin prepared vaccines for residents at Isle au Haut Town Hall on the second day of distribution. The hall served as a combination of the town offices, gym, and only library on the island.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
On remote Maine islands, a mission to vaccinate By Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff,Updated March 9, 2021, 7:29 p.m.
MATINICUS, Maine — The two dozen winter residents of Matinicus Island, give or take a few, lined up off a muddy road, distanced and masked, many wearing the plaid flannel shirts, paint-spattered jeans, and fisherman’s waders that could pass for a uniform here.
It was COVID-19 vaccination day on Matinicus, which lies farther in the Atlantic Ocean than any other inhabited island of the United States. And everyone was welcome. All ages, all health conditions, and all who were motivated to protect one another in a remote place about 20 miles from the mainland.
“We know the virus can come with anybody,” said George Tarkleson, the 66-year-old town manager of the rugged island, whose population swells to about 125 in the summer.
Mission’s Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley
Newsweek – U.S. COVID Vaccinations for Maine’s Remote Island Residents Arrive Via 74-Foot Boat BY JENNI FINK ON 3/9/21 AT 1:38 PM EST
A team of about 10 people is using a 74-foot vessel and their 100-plus years of relationship building to vaccinate some of Maine’s most remote island residents.
Islands off the coast of Maine swell with tourists in the summer, but the number of full-time residents can range from as little as a few dozen people to about 300. Traveling to the mainland to see a doctor can be a days-long trek, so the nonprofit Maine Seacoast Mission is setting up mobile vaccination clinics to bridge the health care gap.
“The weather on the ocean right now is at its roughest, so from that perspective it’s a little bit of a challenge,” John Zavodny, president of the nonprofit, told Newsweek. “[But] we have been there for these islands through generations of hope, success and struggle, and this isn’t even our first pandemic. We’re going to just keep going until everyone is vaccinated.”
