Volunteers who devoted their time to helping Chatham-Kent residents get vaccinated against COVID-19 are being recognized for their efforts.
This year’s Chatham-Kent Senior of The Year award went to the more than 120 seniors who served at the Chatham-Kent COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic at the John D. Bradley Convention Centre.
Mayor Darrin Canniff and Chatham-Kent Councillor Clare Latimer presented the awards earlier this week to the volunteers, which were made up of residents from communities across Chatham-Kent.
“I literally heard from a hundred people from across the community who told me how great this was,” Caniff said. “I didn’t hear a single complaint. There was a lot of planning that went into this but the volunteers were invaluable in making it work.”
More than 118,000 vaccinations were administered at the Bradley Centre Clinic and other pop up clinics in the municipality over the past several months.
According to Chatham-Kent Health Alliance President and CEO Lori Marshall, the clinic also helped attract 140 new volunteers to the hospital.
“It’s a testament to everything that’s good about Chatham-Kent. We couldn’t have done it without them," she said.
South Kent councillor Claire Latimer, Carolyn Powers, Mayor Darrin Canniff. (Photo courtesy Municipality of Chatham-Kent)
Also honoured on Thursday was last year’s Chatham-Kent’s Senior of the Year, Carolyn Powers of Chatham, who was recognized by the province as Ontario Senior of the Year 2020 for Chatham-Kent.
Powers has been a community volunteer throughout her life and continues to devote her time to a number of causes including service club work and drug and alcohol education
The awards are typically presented during the Senior Expo held at the Blenheim Arena in June but that ceremony was cancelled due to COVIC-19 concerns.