Vaccinated church leaders serving as medical volunteers will begin canvassing Grand Rapids neighborhoods identified as having a high number of socially vulnerable residents. It’s a grassroots COVID-19 vaccine registration effort.
Reverend Khary Bridgewater is Coordinator for the Kent County COVID-19 Church Task Force. He says seven zip codes have been identified areas where 200 church leaders and volunteers will go door-to-door offering to register residents to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. It begins Tuesday @ 3:30 with what’s being called the COVID-19 Vaccine Rally and Registration Drive at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. From there, volunteers will canvas the 49507 Zip code hard hit by the spread of COVID.
“Unfortunately, in some of our communities, there’s just a disconnection from that localized community to the broader community," said Bridgewater. "So, this is how e build that bridge and the social networks of churches serve as a vital way of getting information like this down to the everyday citizen who’s trying to make a good choice.”
Reverend Bridgewater says this is the first of 10 drives scheduled for Kent County.