3,000 VACCINATED
Skippack Pharmacy teams with North Penn for pop-up clinic
LANSDALE >> Another 3,000 people received COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday during a pop-up vaccination clinic at North Penn High School.
“It went incredible,” said Dr. Mayank Amin, a pharmacist and owner of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville.
From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. people in the 1A priority group showed up and waited outdoors in springlike temperatures outside the Montgomery County high school at 1340 S. Valley Forge Road, to get their shots.
Lines stretched the “entire length of North Penn from the gyms to the main door along the perimeter of the school,” said North Penn School Board member Jonathan Kassa.
“Everybody was getting along,” Kassa said. “Everybody was in a good mood.”
“The weather certainly didn’t hurt, and that aspect was a sense of calm, and vibrancy, and hope, all at the same time throughout that building, and [in] the long line outside,” he continued.
Kassa recalled the local school board authorizing a vaccination plan late last year to allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other governmental entities to use the high school as a site.
“To me this is very symbolic of real progress,” he told MediaNews group. “It was all just a plan last year. It was an inspiring day honestly.”
This isn’t the first COVID-19 vaccination clinic that Skippack Pharmacy put on.
Despite instances of inclement weather, Amin spoke of two events last month: one on Feb. 7 at the Skippack Fire Company at 1230 Bridge Road, and another on Feb. 14 at Skippack Elementary School at 4081 Heckler Road.
Both clinics netted more than 2,500 inoculations.
“We’ve told the community as long as we keep getting vaccines, we’re not stopping any time soon,” Amin said in February.
Donning a mask, gloves and his now-familiar Superman suit, the pharmacist and North Penn High School alumna was pleased to be able to have his alma mater host a COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
“It was a no brainer to reach out to the high school that I had ties with all my life,” Amin told MediaNews Group.
Kassa expressed his gratitude to Amin and North Penn Superintendent Curt Dietrich for their work in getting the site up and running.
“What struck me most seeing that line is that we can deliver and we’re ready,” Kassa said, adding that “all you have to do is look at North Penn and a publicprivate partnership” with organizations like Skippack Pharmacy.
Kassa likened Sunday’s experience to almost a “Disney line”
in that it was so “well organized.” He noted that chairs were available along the line for those unable to
stand, and the volunteers organizing the clinic maximized the school’s square footage.
Once participants reached the main doors, Kassa observed they’d get their temperatures taken, go into another room to
get checked in, then venture to the gym to get their vaccine before heading to another gym to wait during the 15-minute observation period.
He said several local businesses had donated food and bottled water for volunteers during the marathon event.
Kassa also spotlighted the school district personnel present on Sunday.
“If it wasn’t for security and our custodial staff, we couldn’t have set up for this and then break down and be ready for school the next day,” he said.
While there may be larger issues at play surrounding the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine across the region, Kassa noted the successful initiative that took place here.
“We don’t have to overthink this,” Kassa said. “There are systems in place to deliver these vaccines in arms, and a way to get them into arms fastest is through competent local government, and we’re prepared to do that.”