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 activitiesâ€.
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?
“It
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.â€
“Experience
of getting injected was made very painless here at Evergreen.â€
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.