Two San Bernardino city parishes – St. Anthony and Our Lady of the Assumption – partnered with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health in hosting an all-day health fair/vaccination/flu clinic for parish families.
Held February 25th at St. Anthony’s and March 3rd at Our Lady of the Assumption, the clinics provided an opportunity for parishioners to update COVID vaccines; secure flu shots; complete free vision tests courtesy of Lestonnac Free Clinic’s mobile unit; receive public health information from public and non-profit agencies in such areas as hospice care, senior health services, blood mobiles, nutrition, basic blood pressure - BMI testings.
“The turnout for these events at our parishes has been phenomenal,” stated Ann Marie Gallant, Director of the Diocesan Emergency Operations Collaborative (EOC). “Through grant assistance from San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, we were able to provide more than 300 give-away bags at each event, which included free COVID tests, adult thermometers, hygiene and sanitizing supplies as preventive household tools in combatting community spread of viruses.”
The parish clinics were a joint cooperative-collaborative venture between San Bernardino County, the parishes, the EOC office and the parish/community outreach efforts of the Diocesan Department of Life, Dignity and Justice. “Our department is pleased to be able to participate in this partnership under the EOC grant program,” commented Sister Chilee Okoko, D.M.M.M., Director of Life, Dignity and Justice, “and excited about the continued opportunity to host recurrent health/wellness/public education fairs at our parishes in the future.”
The EOC and Life, Dignity and Justice ministries will be scheduling additional parish clinics throughout the San Bernardino Pastoral Region through May 2024, at Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Adelanto, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Bernardino and St. Bernardine Parish in San Bernardino.
In addition, Life, Dignity and Justice staff will be outreaching to additional parishes that qualify for clinics under this grant program, particularly those with under-insured, under-served health insured households as grant funding permits.