BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — The Caridad Center in Boynton Beach held a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for the minority community Saturday morning.
More than 400 appointments were scheduled to receive the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
"Caridad has been here in this community for 30 years," said Laura Kallus, CEO of the Caridad Center. "This community knows us and trusts us. It's critical to be able to get this many people to get the vaccine."
The center mostly focuses on the Hispanic and Haitian communities of Palm beach County. Kallus said many of them have not stopped working during the whole pandemic, and it was critical for them to host a clinic and outreach.
This is the second event that the center has put on for people ages 16 and over.
There were many sons and daughters who brought their parents and grandparents to receive their vaccine.
"It's really important, especially the old folks," said Pierry Alred, who took his father to the vaccine clinic. "He has high blood pressure and he has all this other stuff. You have to make sure he's safe. On top of it, sometimes he doesn't have a vehicle right now, because we're in between and stuff. So, helping out it is what it is."
"I'm good. I am so happy," said Jean Alfred, who received his vaccine. "I just got my shot, and I don't have any problems, you know."
Leaders with the center said they put the word out through many partnerships like the soup kitchen, churches that are part of the Association of Hispanic Ministers of Palm Beach and the Guatemalan-Maya Center.
"We didn't do a lot of publicity, because we wanted to make sure that our community partners reached those isolated folks or those people that didn't otherwise have an opportunity," said Kallus.
The next scheduled clinic will be May 16. People will have an option to receive the first dose with an option of Johnson & Johnson.
To contact the vaccine hotline, call 561-600-1675 and visit https://caridad.org for more information.