Regis steps into void to get eligible community members vaccinated

More than 2,000 people recently received COVID-19 vaccines on the Regis University campus.

The Regis University School of Pharmacy vaccinated 730 people against COVID-19 during two pop-up clinics for eligible University community members, while more that 1,300 people from underserved neighborhoods received a dose during the weekend.

About 20 volunteers from the Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions (RHCHP) helped vaccinate eligible participants at a Monday, March 22, clinic made possible by a partnership with Safeway/Albertsons. One of those volunteers was Eustacia Bean, pictured, a second-year pharmacy student who’s been vaccinating people since the vaccines became available for the first eligible group — those 70 and older.

Bean and fellow pharmacy students have been volunteering to vaccinate thousands of front-line hospital workers since doses became available in the Denver Front Range area.

“I am proud of our many RHCHP volunteers and how Regis was able to organize these clinics with little lead time. We vaccinated eligible faculty and staff, including several people from underrepresented groups,” said RHCHP Academic Dean Linda Osterlund, Ph.D. “One of the employees being vaccinated said to me, ‘I am going to cry! This is Regis truly living its mission in service of others.’”

Regis provided the venue for more than 1,300 residents of underserved northwest Denver neighborhoods to become vaccinated last weekend. The March 20 and 21 clinic was organized by elected Denver officials, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Gov. Jared Polis’ COVID-19 equity task force. The drive-through clinic was the third — and largest — vaccination clinic in the Denver area, according to a local CBS4 news report.