Julie Kaufman has left her apartment only four times in the last 14 months, homebound because she’s a high risk to contract COVID-19.
When vaccination appointments became available, she searched online and made calls but had no success. So when someone offered to bring the vaccine to her, she jumped at the chance.
“You have no idea what this means to me,” Kaufman told Laura Smith as the Naperville pharmacist prepared to administer Kaufman’s first Moderna shot.
“I have filled out every form in the county, in the state,” the Wheaton resident said of her vaccine search.
“Well, we have one more for you to fill out,” Smith told Kaufman, referring to the document needed to receive the vaccine.
Kaufman was one of eight people that Smith, Sure Ride/TukTuk ride service manager Chris Parker and Vaccination Buddy volunteer Sherry Podgorsky visited Thursday as part of a day-long trek in and around Naperville to vaccinate homebound individuals.
“We’re just trying to get as many people vaccinated so we can get back closer to normal,” Smith said.
More Top Picks Woks
Fifteen minutes after the shot, Smith asked Kaufman how she felt.
“I’m way OK,” Kaufman said enthusiastically.
Volunteers will make a return trip in mid-June to administer the second Moderna dose to Kaufman and the others who received their first shots Thursday.
For Kaufman, the vaccine brings back a sense control, she said. Because of it, she’ll be able to start scheduling some of the surgeries she was forced to put off because of the pandemic, she said.
“I need to move on in my life. I feel like I’ve been stuck,” she said. “It’s so quick getting vaccinated, but it means everything to me.”
Vaccination Buddy, which started as a group of Naperville volunteers assisting older adults in finding vaccination appointments, wanted to expand to help those having trouble getting to shot locations, volunteer/organizer Laura Gaskill said.
They were already in contact with Oswald’s Pharmacy about vaccine availability, Oswald’s owner Alex Anderson said. Conversations that began in March and April became a possibility in May as in-store demand for COVID-19 vaccinations began to drop.
“Everything aligned at the right time and we were able to plan ahead,” Anderson said.
“This was not an easy task to complete — that’s why you don’t see many pharmacies do this,” he said of the homebound visits, which required weeks of planning.
Smith, Podgorsky and Parker left Oswald’s about 9 a.m. Thursday. Their schedule included stops in Naperville, Wheaton, Lombard, Elmhurst and Crest Hill, with just enough time for a lunch break in between.
Parker provided the transportation and said it would be a 77-mile drive by the time they returned about 5 p.m.
Smith administered the vaccines while Podgorsky helped with paperwork and watched for vaccination side effects.
Podgorsky, who became a Vaccination Buddy volunteer in March, said she was happy to spend her birthday Thursday bringing some closure to people who have been unable to get vaccinated.
“The long wait for the homebound is tough. And some don’t know where to begin or go,” she said. “My part in this is tiny, but this small thing I did may mean so much to them.”