Unique vaccine clinic in Windsor includes snacks, car show

A circle of decades-old vehicles and a snack stand completed a paradoxically fun vaccine clinic Wednesday in Windsor.

The clinic and car show was presented by Corazón Healdsburg, a local nonprofit dedicated to amplifying Latino voices and creating community cultural events in the Sonoma County area.

The nonprofit teamed up with Alliance Health to create the interactive vaccine clinic. Some came for a Pfizer dose and some just showed up for a dose of community.

“For the vaccine to be part of our day-to-day culture, and it needs to be, we need to connect it to things that are already part of our culture,” said Glaydon de Freitas, CEO of Corazón Healdsburg.

“It’s going to be very familiar to the way that we celebrate so the vaccine will be only one new item of this community celebration,” he added.

The clinic at Windsor’s Cali Calmecac Language Academy featured a car show of about 20 vintage cars, a live DJ and a cart full of treats, from Takis and Coca-Cola to fresh fruit.

A teacher at the Language Academy, Luz Robles brought her 13-year-old to the clinic after school now that the Pfizer shot has been approved for his age group.

“We’re excited that he got the vaccine and he’s excited, too. I mean, at first we were nervous, like any other parent, but this is the right thing to do,” Robles said. She added that she’d noticed a few young students from the school also receiving their inoculations.

Robles’ husband, Enrique Licea, brought his 1964 Chevy Impala to take part in the car show. Licea said his entire family has been vaccinated already.

Seventy-one people were inoculated in total at the clinic, according to Holly Fox, Corazón Healdsburg’s marketing and communications manager.

De Freitas noted that even if people didn’t show up to get vaccinated, the “unintended consequence” is that the vaccines will become more normal in the community.

Corazón Healdsburg has enlisted six bilingual youth leaders to volunteer with Alliance Health, calling people who might need Spanish translation to provide more information about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Yovani Fernandez of Windsor, who was running the snack stand, said it was his first time participating in an event of this kind.

“It’s important to promote (vaccines) ... it brings the community together,” Fernandez said in Spanish, with Kay Verduzco translating.

As the grown-ups wove in between cars on the school’s back lot, admiring the vintage Chevrolets, groups of kids played with a soccer ball in an open area near the DJ.

Representatives from Corazón Healdsburg stood nearby the clinic to answer questions about the organization’s programs, especially programs for emergency preparedness and financial aid for people affected by the Kincade fire in 2019.

Corazón Healdsburg teamed up with Alliance Health to do one pop-up clinic in the past. De Freitas said the nonprofit has helped with outreach to Sonoma County’s Latinx population.

Government is “not meeting the community expectations,” De Freitas said. “It was a huge effort for us to work ... to make the solutions to have these people vaccinated.“

To learn more about Corazón Healdsburg’s community efforts, visit corazonhealdsburg.org.