Photo: @lnweatherspoon
In her rural town of Panola, Alabama, Dorothy Oliver is calling the shots.
Oliver has helped almost all of Panola’s 344 residents get aCOVID-19vaccine, no small feat in a state where less than half the population is fully vaccinated. As for the handful of holdouts, Oliver, 69, refuses to quit. Even after a year of making phone calls and knocking on doors, “I keep talking,” she says.
Since vaccines first became available, Oliver has wanted to keep her community safe. “I went to everybody and said, ‘This disease is bad — I don’t think you want to take chances.’ "
Some residents wanted a vaccine, she says, but didn’t know how to make an appointment, while others couldn’t even get to the closestvaccination site, which was 40 miles away at the time. “I woke up every day thinking, ‘How can we do it? ' " says the owner of Panola’s General Store. “And something came to me:Youneed to do it.”
When business was slow, Oliver started calling residents of Panola, where she has lived for 40 years, to share what she’d learned and to encourage people to get their shots. She offered to assist people in making appointments or even physically getting to the vaccination site.
Drucilla Russ-Jackson and Dorothy Oliver.@lnweatherspoon
To make the shots more accessible, she and county commissioner Drucilla Russ-Jackson brought a pop-up clinic to the town, which was the subject of the documentary short “The Panola Project.” They needed at least 40 people, and ended up going door to door to get people to sign up.
To persuade them, she used a gentle appeal and kind manner. “The best way to approach people, is not to approach them in a mean way,” she says. “I talk to them in a calm way. I tell them how serious it is. I say, ‘You really need to get it for your family.'”
And Oliver refuses to slow down.
For more on Dorothy Oliver, pick up a copy of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday
She is now helping5- to 12-year-oldsget their shots and working on gettingboostersfor adults. Although she would love to get a clinic out to Panola again, it’s harder now that vaccines are available in more places, including a hospital 17 miles away.
But, she says, 17 miles is still far for someone without transportation. “If they need me, I will take them,” she says. “My work ain’t done yet.”
source: people.com
