Albany church works to vaccinate the community, offers free health checks

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Members of Albany’s St. Paul Baptist Church say they are still feeling the effects of COVID-19. And three years later, they are working to vaccinate the community.

St. Paul recently received a grant from Albany State University (ASU) for $80,000. They also received a $5,000 donation from former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor for their COVID efforts.

Senior Pastor Calvin Rollins says their last vaccination drive was a major success.

“It was great. The church was just about half full, actually,” Pastor Rollins said. “We gave away a lot of food. And we had 69 people who were vaccinated. That was a great turnout. We had to turn away a few. Because actually, Phoebe came. They wasn’t prepared for such a great turnout. And so, they had to go back and get some more vaccinations and come back.”

Pastor Rollins says Saturday’s upcoming event is expected to be even better.

“I’m look forward to this time,” Rollins said. “I believe they said they may bring both mobile units this particular Saturday. Because we’re expecting a great turnout. The weather’s going to be great. And that’s going to help us as well. So we’re looking forward to a greater turnout than we had.”

The leaders at St. Paul are not only focused on COVID but all aspects of health as well.

“We will tie in the diabetes prevention. We will have a professional coming and speaking to us on that,” President of St. Paul’s Men’s Ministry, Cortes Roberts said. “Also, we will have free haircuts. We have barbers here. We will be registering the people, flu shots will be given and glucose checks.”

The COVID vaccination clinic is this Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Baptist Church located at 2605 Sylvester Road, Albany, Georgia.

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