CHIMACUM — With three days to go before a COVID-19 vaccination clinic, Al Latham got a cold shot.
The upstairs furnace at the Chimacum Grange had, as he put it, bit the dust.
Latham discovered it when he tried to turn on the heat at the hall, which had been closed since last March due to the pandemic.
The grange was about to reopen for a full day of immunizations coordinated by the Tri-Area Pharmacy in Port Hadlock.
So Latham called Ben’s Heating of Port Townsend, and “they got right on it,” ordering a new heater.
It arrived not a minute too soon, and “they were putting it in while people were getting vaccinated,” he said.
“It was freezing; my hands were blue” that first morning, added Jennifer Sharko-Taylor, the Tri-Area Pharmacy assistant who’s helped shepherd people through the inoculation process.
“Now it’s already warm when I get here,” she said Friday, the grange’s sixth vaccination day.
In the past 2½ weeks, 940 people, including seniors and first responders from Jefferson and Kitsap counties, have received COVID-19 shots at the Chimacum Grange.
Appointments have filled up at high speed.
Pharmacy representatives ask that people do not call the store directly for appointments, since the staff has been overwhelmed; people are racing to get vaccinations and there simply aren’t yet enough to go around.
For appointment availability, see covidbi.timetap.com.
“We’re pleased to offer the space,” Latham said of the Chimacum Grange hall, adding that the grange’s reserve account made it possible to immediately shell out the $3,600 for the new furnace.
As the Chimacum Grange’s board secretary and treasurer, he hopes to replenish that fund so the hall can stay warm, dry and ready for the day when other events can fill it with people.
A fundraising campaign is underway: Donations are encouraged via chimacumgrange.org, where there’s a “Furnace” link near the top of the page.
Robert Walker of Silverdale waits outside the Chimacum Grange during the vaccination clinic on Friday. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
While the hall’s location is 9572 Rhody Drive, the mailing address is Chimacum Grange, P.O. Box 604, Chimacum, WA 98325. The grange can also be reached by phone at 360-732-0015 or by email at chimacumgrange@gmail.com.
The organization’s reserves need to be stoked, Latham said, since maintenance issues have a way of popping up.
“Any time we get good windstorm, we lose a few shingles. And we need to look at energy efficiency,” he said, adding Ben’s Heating told him it’s a matter of time before the grange’s downstairs furnace quits.
Like its counterparts across the country, the grange is a popular community center, hosting dances, craft fairs, pancake feeds and many meetings since its construction in 1932.
Sharko-Taylor, meanwhile, expressed her gratitude to Latham and the grange for providing the vaccination space.
“We have not thrown away one dose,” she said.
When any extra vaccine has become available, Sharko-Taylor has phoned her elderly pharmacy patients to let them know how to sign up for shots.
The Chimacum Grange was busy inside and out Friday afternoon as people waited in line and Medical Reserve Corps workers administered shots and directed traffic.
As rain began to fall, a handful of workers rushed out to erect a canopy over the patients’ heads.
“That’s what community is all about,” Latham said.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
