United Community Schools worked their magic again this spring, contributing to the effort to vaccinate parents, caregivers and community members. This follows their work at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they stepped up to feed hungry families, provide mental health care and improve internet access.

At the Bronx Writing Academy, UCS and its health care partner, MetroPlus, turned a vaccination day on June 4 into a festival with a DJ, a balloon artist, an ice cream cart, giant video games and a raffle for Apple AirPods. Despite an afternoon thunderstorm, 76 people were vaccinated. They returned for their second shot on June 25, when the same attractions were there to draw in more people from the Morrisania neighborhood.

Karen Alford, the UFT vice president for elementary schools, was a key planner of the event. Alford said providing vaccinations is crucial to the UFT and UCS mission of returning students safely to school buildings in the fall. “Providing easy access to the vaccines enables us to provide another level of safety for our families,” she said.

When the pandemic began, Corona, Queens, was often called the “epicenter of the epicenter” of the pandemic. The school community lost parents, staff, family members and friends. Though vaccines became available, appointments in the area were scarce. Allison Brown, the community school director at PS 19 in Corona, said, “We had hundreds of parents who wanted an appointment but had a hard time finding one.” So Brown teamed up with the local Rite Aid to organize vaccination events. As of April 16, 250 people had either been vaccinated or had secured appointments, thanks to PS 19’s efforts.

Twenty miles away in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, PS 335 identified a similar lack of access. The school had an existing partnership with the District 16 Community Education Council after they worked together to open food pantries. They teamed up again to get the city to open a vaccination site at Restoration Plaza, within walking distance of PS 335. Now, the school’s families can more easily schedule and get to appointments.

“This has been a true community effort,” said PS 19’s Brown, before listing the partnerships that made things happen in Corona: the Rite Aid pharmacist who grew up in Corona and helps distribute flu shots at the school every year; the local church, Aliento de Vida, that agreed to host the vaccination events; the dozens of parents who volunteered to run the events.

Among those PS 19 parents is Salome Sanango, whose son John is a 4th-grader. After struggling to get an appointment online, Sanango got her vaccine with the school’s help. Now, she volunteers at PS 19 vaccination events and tries to “encourage other people to get the COVID-19 vaccine,” she said. “I feel happy to be helping other people.”