April 21-27 is National Volunteer Week, and RHHD has reason to celebrate! When we take on community projects, some of our most important teammates are volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps of Virginia, or MRC. The MRC brings together people from all walks of life to support the educational and emergency response goals of health organizations across the country. In the Greater Richmond area, the MRC chapter supports efforts at RHHD and the Chickahominy Health Districts.
Volunteers were especially critical during COVID-19 vaccination efforts. The MRC estimates that Greater Richmond volunteers donated over 100,000 hours of time in 2021 to keep clinics staffed and running.
Deborah Potter joined the MRC after her daughter learned about the program. She began traveling to churches, schools, and even parking lots across the region to support COVID testing and vaccination. “There was so much going on at that time—there was vaccine denial and people had these misconceptions about COVID,” she recalls. “It felt good to be part of something that was scientifically based and could support communities. You were there to provide assistance so that people could be safe.”
Like many MRC volunteers, Deborah came to the work from a non-medical background. Her role was to make sure logistics ran smoothly so that the health experts could focus on sharing reliable information with patients.
At each vaccination event, MRC volunteers received a clear task—directing traffic, patient registration, or monitoring people who’ve received their vaccines—and training for that task. This kind of planning was especially important for large vaccination sites, like the Richmond Raceway or the site at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center.
Deborah says organization ensured that people would share their positive experiences with others and return for future doses: “What MRC and RHHD did to get Arthur Ashe up and mobile was just phenomenal. Having people to greet patients who were interested and friendly created that environment where people could think ‘okay, this wasn’t bad.’ Then they would tell other people. Word of mouth really helped, because I think people were expecting it to be a grueling task and it wasn’t.”
Deborah’s work at Arthur Ashe and other testing and vaccination sites brought her into contact with people from all over the region and as far away as Florida. She still remembers a pastor from Baltimore who visited a church vaccination event in Richmond to learn best practices for vaccine outreach in his own community.
Mass vaccination events for COVID may have ended, but the MRC is still going strong. Deborah volunteers for health education events at schools and has helped with mpox vaccination. She participates in the MRC’s trainings and workshops, which help volunteers build skills in important subject areas like mental health awareness. And she’s formed a community with other volunteers.
Reflecting on her experiences at COVID clinics and later events, Deborah praises the Greater Richmond MRC Coordinator Alyssa Lewis and Assistant Coordinator Cindy Yadav, along with the medical providers she supports: “It’s been a huge learning curve, and the way they’ve shared information with all the communities has been so remarkable. I could not do what Alyssa and the nurses here do—they organize everything, and it moves so flawlessly. Mine is an infinitesimal part compared to the overall picture. But if my part is to lend help to them to do what they need to do, that’s important.”
On National Volunteer Week, thank you to all our Medical Reserve Corps members, past, present and future! Deborah encourages residents interested in the MRC to check out the program and consider registering: “It’s more than just giving vaccinations. It’s ongoing learning, training, public safety, and public service. It’s a really crucial thing for people to be a part of.” Register as a new volunteer at the MRC website.
