NORWICH - Norwich Free Academy teachers, staff and administrators were the latest group of Eastern Connecticut school personnel to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, courtesy of a mass clinic that planned to put shots into 185 arms on Friday.
The clinic, inside the school’s Norton Gymnasium, came together through the efforts of NFA and the Nutmeg Pharmacy in Taftville with school nurses helping to give first-dose shots of the Moderna vaccine to waiting staffers.
NFA Director of Office Communications Michael O’Farrell said by day’s end about 95% of the school’s roughly 300-member staff would have received their first vaccination dose, a number that included employees who sought out and received shots on their own.
Norwich Nearly 200 Norwich Free Academy teachers, administrators and support staff members made their way to the Norton Gymnasium in small groups Friday to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It does feel like a milestone,” said NFA job coach Wes Murphy, who also coaches boys basketball and boys and girls volleyball. “I’m able to do what’s needed to get back to our regular schedule and activities.”
Daisy Torres, a member of the janitorial and cleaning staff, said she was ready to get her vaccine. As a cancer survivor, she said she was “so happy” to sign up for the NFA mass vaccination clinic.
Published January 22. 2021 7:57AM
Bill Stanley, Special to The Times
No matter how far you move physically in life, you never completely leave the place where you grew up.
Having been born and raised in Norwich, I have many fond memories of the Rose City from my formative years. Many of those memories become more vivid when I’m able to re-connect with old friends and acquaintances on Facebook.
Social media isn’t for everyone, but reliving memories from our hometown and engaging with others who have lived and/or worked there is refreshing. It is a means for sharing information sometimes sad information like the recent passing of classmate and friend, Joe Barbera, a wonderfully friendly, happy, and popular guy, whom I met during our days together in the late 1960s at Kelly Junior High School.