Volunteers help to reach herd immunity

Volunteers prepare to vaccinate the community.

"some of our hardworking volunteers give 30 to 40 hours of volunteer time."

Vaccine distribution in lane county has brought in hundreds of volunteers from the community.

Some of them work long days... "we can do 8-12 hour days."

And in rough conditions.

""yeah i've been in the sleet, the wind, the rain."

But volunteers say they genuinely like coming out to help because there's such a positive atmosphere.

"everyones in a pretty good mood because they know they're getting protected against covid."

Bridge: volunteers often come out to these clinics with no incentive but just to help people.

And often they have to help with things like traffic control.

""pretty much we start a couple hours before the people show up.

So we can prepare the area, lay out the cones, and prepare the materials so that once people come we can attend them."

And today at the fairgrounds, a pop up clinic was set up less than 24 hours before appointment time.

Yet more than a dozen volunteers-- including several search and rescue volunteers, still showed up to vaccinate at least 600 more people.

Jason bowman is the supervisor for the search and rescue team and he said this is because his team has a strong desire to get through the pandemic.

"it's really built into the identity of our volunteers that if there is an emergency they want to go out and help."

A spokesperson from lane county public health said there's been an overwhelming response from the community to volunteer.

But anyone can sign up through a system called serv dash o-r featured on the lane county public health website.

As for the current volunteers, they say it's the community's response that is most rewarding.

"everyone that comes through is just so appreciative."

Reporting in eugene, jaewon jung kezi 9 news.