Hattie Lewis was in vaccination purgatory.

Her age and health conditions put the Kansas City woman squarely in the vulnerable population who were to be among the first in line for Covid-19 vaccinations.

But day by day she still waited for a reply from the official online waiting lists she’d filled out. Anxiously she had tried searching the Internet in vain for clues on how she might get a shot.

Then, she said, “Pastor Miles called.”

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The Rev. John Modest Miles, pastor of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, shared welcome news. The Missouri Army National Guard was bringing doses of a Covid vaccine to the church’s community center at 27th Street and Prospect Avenue.

The church’s collaboration with the National Guard, Gov. Mike Parson’s office and LINC was meant to reach infection-vulnerable people in the heart of Kansas City just like her.

“We are trying our best to get our community vaccinated,” Miles said from the floor of Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center Feb. 11. “Because Covid-19 is so serious — so serious — in our community. So many lives have been lost.”

In all, the special vaccination effort over three days Feb. 11-13 expected to administer 500 doses in the first round of the two-dosage vaccination process.

Morning Star is in Kansas City’s 3rd City Council District, a portion of the city that is majority Black and which has suffered a disproportionate number of Covid cases and Covid deaths. The area also has a high concentration of low-income residents who are less likely to have access to health care or their own transportation.

Gov. Parson has deployed National Guard units to help distribute vaccinations, and the team at Morning Star was eager to help the church and LINC bridge the vaccination gap, said Sgt. Jeromy Eslinger.

“We are helping . . . people (who) cannot normally get out very much, who don’t have vehicles,” Eslinger said, “so they can come here to the Morning Star center to get their vaccine.”

James and Theresa McCoy came to get vaccinated, but were most concerned to bring McCoy’s 96-year-old aunt, Juanita Mitchell, to get her first shot.

“She’s 96 and she understands this is a serious matter and we’re not going to take any chances with it,” James McCoy said.

“Everyone should try to do their job keeping everybody safe,” said Theresa McCoy, who, same as her husband and his aunt, was wearing a mask and social distancing. “I came so I could do my part keeping everybody safe, and myself and my family.”

Currently, in Missouri’s phased rollout of the vaccine, the state is offering vaccines to anyone in Phase 1B, Tier 2 or above. Tier 2 includes anyone 65 or older and anyone with medical conditions that put them at severe risk if infected with Covid.

The church and LINC worked the phones, reaching out to people in Tier 2 to help them take advantage of the vaccination program in their neighborhood.

It was an exciting opportunity, said LINC Caring Communities Administrator Janet Miles-Bartee, that the state and the National Guard agreed to work with Morning Star and LINC.

“They came to the heart of the community,” she said. “We have a lot of our seniors who have really struggled to be able to go online and navigate the systems to be able to get the vaccine. So being able to get them to a neighborhood or community place that they are familiar with has been extraordinary.”

The neighborhood location also makes it easier for vaccine recipients to make the return trip, since the vaccination process will require a second shot within a few weeks.

It’s not painful, recipients said, and it is important. You can get the vaccine to protect yourself, or, as Opal Saunders said after her shot, you can get it to protect those around you.

“I’m here,” she said, “to get my shot to get vaccinated because I don’t want to be the one to give it to the rest of the family.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer

Video edited by Bryan Shepard