Dan Waitz vividly remembers the time a few years ago when he gave his oldest son Grant and his other children each a quarter at a restaurant so they could get a piece of candy out of a gumball machine. A few minutes later, I looked over at the kids and everybody was chewing gum except Grant, Waitz recounted. When I asked Grant why he didn t get a gumball, he said he put the quarter in the container on the counter they were using to raise money for kids with leukemia. That s the kind of person Grant was: the most caring, compassionate, kind kid you d ever want to meet.
CEDAR RAPIDS Sandra Byard felt hopeful and saw “a light at the end of the tunnel” as she and other Linn County school nurses and health secretaries this week received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
While the Cedar Rapids schools health services facilitator wishes teachers and other school staff also were receiving the COVID-19 vaccine now, each person who is vaccinated makes the world a little safer, she said.
“We know they’re all at risk,” Byard said. “We’re hopeful the vaccine distribution can be speeded up because it’s not going to be a short process.”