Nicole Salvadore, leader of the drive-thru vaccination clinic held Saturday morning at the Knight Campus of CCRI, was surprised to see the woman pushing a stroller, a girl holding a doll and a teenager walking in their direction.

“We’ve got some walks ups,” she said to the team gathered in the shade of the pop up tent set up alongside a lane to the vast college parking lot. That seemed odd, as the college campus is far from the beaten path, but Salvadore didn’t ask questions. The team was there to get people vaccinated.

As it turned out, the mother had parked and walked over to the clinic. A recent Warwick resident, the mother was looking to get her daughter vaccinated before she starts middle school classes. Salvadore showed the family to a row of chairs where the mother sat to the left of her teenage daughter.

A registered nurse, Salvadore was prepared to administer the Pfizer vaccine.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

The daughter spotted the needle and attempted to stand up. Her mother held her in place, reassuring her that everything was going to be alright. Salvadore lowered the needle and in a comforting tone told her this was nothing more than a minor prick. She would probably feel nothing and it would be over before she knew it. The girl started yelling and crying. Salvadore waited for the mother to calm her daughter. Team members Andrew Zarlenga and AJ Silverman stood by, ready to assist.

The daughter calmed. Salvadore administered the vaccination. It was over in an instant.

“I’m really proud of you,” she told the teenager. The girl looked surprised and relieved. Salvadore suggested she select a donut from a box on a table behind her. The apprehensive mood lifted.

The episode was not out of the ordinary.

Salvadore has dealt with others fearful of needles.

Since the Disaster Assistance Medical Team Medical Reserve Corps has worked with the Rhode Island Department of Health in response to COVID 19 – Saturday was mission response day 513 – weeks have become a blur for Salvadore and her team. Once a vaccine became available weekends have melted away with one clinic after the next. None of the team is paid. This is an entirely volunteer effort involving thousands of people.

Brooke Lawrence, executive officer of the Medical Reserve Corps, said the CCRI clinic was one of eight held Saturday. He said 8,600 people, both those with medical and non-medical backgrounds, are registered with the corps although not all of them are active. He estimated the corps’ volunteers have given more than 200,000 hours of service since the pandemic hit. He said the team can always use more volunteers and those interested in learning more as well as signing up should visit RIResponds.org.

“It’s really about community access,” he said of the clinics, “it’s putting vaccines on the road.”

Missions, as the clinics are called, last between 90 minutes and three hours. As much as having volunteers who can put “needles in arms” are volunteers to set setup and breakdown, direct traffic, handle paperwork and answer questions.

The Medical Reserve Corps works under contract with the Department of Health and is dependent on grants and donations, Lawrence said.

Lawrence said the delta variant of the virus that has had an impact on younger people has helped “motivate” some people who have avoided getting vaccinated up until now. Considering the number of new cases of COVID nationwide and how states with low rates of vaccinations are hit especially hard is sufficient evidence for Lawrence that vaccines are working.

Nationwide, 166 million people are fully vaccinated or 50.6 percent of the population. In Rhode Island 658,000 are fully vaccinated for 62.1 percent. Of the population 18 years old and older, 72.6 percent of Rhode Islanders are fully vaccinated. Vermont leads the nation at 78.1 percent and Alabama brings up the rear with 43.5 percent according to the New York Times.

“It is really important to get vaccinated,” Lawrence said.

There’s an additional motivation for the team of volunteers, too.

As Lawrence says, “everyone we do today we don’t have to do tomorrow.”

The CCRI team Saturday never had more than three cars at a time. As the driver ahead was directed to a team member who would deliver the vaccine, Zarlenga and Silverman handed clipboards with the necessary paperwork to those waiting. On reaching the last station, people were given their vaccination cards and an appointment for a follow-up shot if needed. They were instructed to wait in their cars for 15 minutes in event of an adverse reaction. The choice Saturday was between Pfizer and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson.

By 10:15, Salvadore was thinking of the next mission as her crew calculated whether they had the time to swing home to change out of their sweat-soaked shirts. There were also a few donuts left. That went well with some of the college security officers present.