At fire stations across the Denver metro area, parents line up on the weekends with their children to see the big trucks, get a toy and receive free immunizations.
“Kids are always really excited to see a fire truck, especially if it gets called out,” said Stephanie Wasserman, executive director of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition. “The firefighters and EMTs are just really incredibly welcoming.”
The Shots for Tot and Teens campaign offers low- and no-cost immunization clinics throughout the year in Aurora, Denver, Arvada and now Thornton. The clinics, now in their 16th year, are a collaboration between CCIC, Denver Public Health, Tri-County Health Department, local fire departments and rotary clubs. And nurses have given more than 60,000 vaccinations for diseases like whooping cough, chicken pox and measles.
“It’s just a very welcoming and popular way for families to receive vaccines over the years,” she said.
For parents who choose to vaccinate their children, the clinics don’t require appointments, always happen on the weekends and are located close to public transit.
“These clinics are targeted at lower-income people who may be underinsured or uninsured,” Wasserman said. “They have lower immunization rates due to a variety of reasons” like not having a primary care physician or the inability to take time off from work to visit a doctor’s office during the week.
Colorado has one of the lowest vaccination rates for kindergartners in the nation, and that’s something even Gov. Jared Polis, who opposed a 2019 bill to eliminate certain vaccination exemptions for attending public schools, has said he wants to change. He issued an executive order in June to study the effectiveness of local immunization drives — particularly those in rural communities.
Wasserman said she’s heard from communities in western and eastern Colorado that want to do their own Shots for Tots and Teens clinics but they lack the resources. Instead, their families travel for hours to get to one of the metro-area clinics. That’s why CCIC applied for and received a planning grant from AmeriCorps, a federal civil service program, to start mapping out how to expand the clinics statewide.
“This provides a safety net service for families,” Wasserman said. “People come from all over the state.”
