Local hospitals in Mount Pleasant opened the clinic on January 22 for residents eligible to receive their first Covid-19 vaccine injections. But just after opening the drive-thru, the computer system that handles the records fell, causing hundreds of people to wait in heavy traffic.
That’s when Jerry Walkowiak, the manager of a neighboring Chick-fil-A, stepped in to save the day.
“When I heard about this, I called Jerry and asked if he could help us,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie told CNN. “After taking a look, he said, ‘There is your problem. It’s backed up because you have a person registering people. ‘ Then he showed us how to do it right. “
With the help of a few additional volunteers, Walkowiak turned traffic congestion into a smooth operation, reducing waiting hours to just 15 minutes.
More than 1,000 people received the vaccine that day, Haynie said. When everyone returns for the second dose on February 12, Walkowiak will be back to help control the drive-thru.
“At Chick-fil-A, we aim to be the most considerate company in the world, and when Mayor Haynie asked us to come, we took a look at what her drive-thru system was,” Walkowiak told the WCBD news station.
“We saw a small problem with your drive-thru system and we needed a few more people, so we gathered some of Rotary’s wonderful volunteers and went over there to speed up the registration part.”
More than 29 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States, according to data published on Saturday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although the United States still has a long way to go before the pandemic is over, Haynie hopes the experience in his city will encourage others to get vaccinated and help with vaccination efforts.
“Jerry got a call and dropped everything because he knows that giving the vaccine is a game changer,” said Haynie. “This is what light looks like at the end of the long Covid tunnel.”