they were mobilized for a ….
they were mobilized for a special delivery of COVID-19 registration packets, two to each unit. The five-page packets were printed in the GRF Copy and Supply Center by Distribution employees Wendi Noble and Cindy Maiden. They copied more 13,216 packets, working until after 11 p.m., Friday, and back at it on Saturday at 7:30 a.m., despite it being a three-day weekend.
After packets were bundled, Pomeroy trundled box after box to the Amphitheater, where 22 carriers, most of them LW residents, stood by to deliver them. Deliveries began Friday afternoon, went into the night and continued Sunday.
“People were waiting for them,” said carrier Sybil Tanabe of Mutual 15. She delivers to mutuals 12 and 14. “They knew the packets were coming, and they were so happy to get them.”
At noon on Saturday, the call center was opened in Clubhouse 3. Within one minute, the system crashed as thousands of residents dialed and redialed hundreds of times. According to Assistant Recreation Manager Kathy Thayer, 83,000 calls were attempted; 20,000 of those made it through the system, which crashed immediately. “We could not capture the calls. It killed the Internet, burned up our modem and even shut down all GRF calls for a while,” she said.
Once Spectrum worked out the kinks, three GRF staffers stayed to take calls till 10 p.m. Saturday, said Thayer. She and others were also “manually pulling numbers that we could see, trying to call them on our own cells to book appointments,” said Thayer.
GRF staff booked 200 appointments in two hours on Saturday night, completing the 400 slots allotted for Monday’s clinic. Staffers returned Sunday at 8 a.m. and booked 400 appointments in three hours for Tuesday’s clinic.
On Monday, residents began receiving the long-awaited vaccinations. Security and Seal Beach police officers were at the clinic to monitor traffic and confirm
Mercy Hightower, daughter of HCC nurse Jane Hightower, and several other young people volunteered to welcome residents and help them find their way.
GRF staffers Wendi Noble and Cindy Maiden spent much of a holiday weekend at the copy machines so residents would have the required registration packets in time for shot clinics.
