Rachana Shah is  the co-founder and President of the Evergreen Adult Day Health Center located in Woburn, MA which she started 4 years ago.  Prior to that she worked in large corporations as a Systems Analyst. She started the center four years ago and since then she says, “When I  am at the center, I enjoy spending time with my participants and caring for them and I also enjoy spending the rest of my time with my two kids Sana and Siddharth getting involved in their day-to-day activities”.

 What prompted you to start these vaccinations?

 Most people were having difficulty making appointments to get vaccinated when the State of Massachusetts first rolled out vaccination clinics for high-risk individuals. When I heard from the participants of Evergreen Adult Day Health Center about the challenges, they were facing in getting vaccinated, I reached out to the local pharmacies and worked very closely with the them to set up appointments for the seniors that attend the adult day health program.  Once vaccinated they could continue living comfortably and without the fear of getting infected with COVID. After that I worked with many community seniors and other high-risk individuals to get them vaccinated and with the help of Pelmeds pharmacy and volunteers from the community we have been setting up weekend clinics at the Evergreen Adult Day Health Center in Woburn, to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

How many clinics have you conducted and how many people have been vaccinated?

In past month and a half, we have conducted over 5 clinics and over 400 people have been able to take advantage of these clinics.  I hope I can continue with this process so everyone in our community can take advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated immediately which will allow them and their families to stay safe. 

Could you share some of the experiences of folks who benefitted?

 â€œIt was a pleasure talking to you yesterday, as I mentioned that I received a call from Evergreen adult center on Sunday afternoon for my vaccination, but they were closing in 45min and I informed them that I was at my son’s place in Sudbury and it would take me that long to get there, so they offered to wait for me. Upon my arrival I was greeted, temp taken and the receptionist who was very pleasant and took down my details, my whole experience at the center could have not been better, everyone was so pleasant and accommodating and I’m assuming that all the staff were volunteers, very professional thank you all.”  With Best Wishes. Jayantibhai Chohan

“Thanks for inviting for Covid vaccine, we got it yesterday. Thanks, the whole team for doing such a nice and noble job.” Regards, Kumud and Mina Rayjada.

“This is so well organized, and the volunteers are very friendly.” 

“Experience of getting injected was made very painless here at Evergreen.”

Please share with us the people behind this vaccination effort?

First and formally, I would like to thank Bhuren Patel from Pelmeds Pharmacy for providing vaccines for the seniors in the community and I would also like to thank all the volunteers who have helped me with multiple clinics. Parul Sanghvi, Bharat Shah from Gurjar, Rashmi Shah, Mitaben Patel from Patidar Samaj, Bijal Doshi, Mehul Sanghvi, Sami Sanghvi, Gautam Shah and Bhavna Chalupadi for support in administration of vaccines and other logistics.

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