A church in Daviess County is part of the national effort to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to members of the Spanish-speaking community.
Sts. Joseph and Paul Catholic Church in Owensboro serves about 700 families, with about 200 of those attending the Spanish-language masses.
Stewardship Minister Ashley Wilkerson said the church hosted two vaccination clinics recently, in collaboration with FEMA, to get the COVID-19 vaccines to underserved communities.
“We had a fantastic turnout. They actually ran out of vaccines twice at the first clinic, and got more from some other places in town that had extra vaccinations," said Wilkerson. "We had about 65 to 70 vaccinated the first time. And then we had at the follow up we had about 45 to 50.”
Wilkerson said many who were vaccinated at the two clinics were from the Hispanic community, and Spanish speakers were on-site to help with information and paperwork.
“Some of the places that do the vaccine didn’t have anyone who was bilingual to be able to help explain the paperwork, the process," said Wilkerson. "I think that’s one of the reasons why the Hispanic community has felt like they have not been able to get to the vaccines, is just language barrier being one, but also having to make an appointment and things like that.”
Sts. Joseph and Paul Catholic Church has a bilingual priest and one of the Sunday masses is conducted in Spanish.
