‘Glad to get it over with’ - Wilmington clinic brings vaccinations closer to home in southern Will County

Virginia Burchardt said she was very surprised she was able to get a COVID-19 vaccine close to home.

Burchardt, 78, was one of several people who received shots last week at a Will County Health Department clinic in St. Rose Church in Wilmington.

“Glad to get it over with,” she said.

Burchardt said being unable to drive makes it “a pain in the neck” to get around, so it would have been hard to make it to a clinic in Joliet. She didn’t expect a clinic to come to a small town like Wilmington as soon as it did.

As health officials expand vaccination options for residents, a big concern was reaching those in more rural southern and eastern parts of Will County.

Will County Board member Joe VanDuyne, D-Wilmington, said sometimes residents in the southern part of the county “may feel underserved” because so many county services are concentrated closer to Joliet.

“This mass vaccination site has been a great opportunity to show them they are important to us,” VanDuyne said.

Health officials said the St. Rose school building, which was shut down last year, provided the space they needed for the clinic. The Will County Health Department said it will vaccinate close to 600 people per day there.

Officials hope more vaccination sites come online in the next few weeks and accelerate inoculations. Another clinic in Monee is set to open this week and the Will County Health Department said that a mass vaccination site will open next month at the old Toys “R” Us store in Joliet with the help of the Illinois Department of Public Health and National Guard.

As vaccine efforts ramp up, more locals hope for a return to some semblance of normalcy more than a year into the pandemic.

New Lenox resident Vicky Saenz, 60, said it had been frustrating trying to book a vaccination appointment. Both Saenz and her husband David, 62, have cancer and she hasn’t been able to see her mother who lives in Tennessee during the pandemic.

“It’s been horrible because my mom has dementia and I haven’t been able to see her for a while,” Saenz said.

Saenz receives chemotherapy for her cancer, which suppresses her immune system and makes it impossible to visit family. But after being vaccinated, Saenz believes she can do what she’s been missing for the past year.

“I’m hoping,” she said fighting back tears, “to see family now.”