Rotary Flu Shot Saturday gets shot in the arm
The Rotary Club of Farragut’s annual Flu Shot Saturday is getting a boost from Walgreens this year.
Free flu shots will be given from 8 a.m. to noon, Sept. 28, or however long the doses last, in Farragut High School Commons, said Mark Bialik, RCF Flu Shot Saturday event chairman.
“We always try to open early,” he added. “We try to open about 7:30 (a.m.).”
With RCF members manning and managing the FHS location, coordinating with a doctor, other clubs will be at flu shot locations at Carter, Austin-East, Halls, West and South Doyle high schools.
This is the 28th year RCF has provided flu shots to the Farragut community, and for the first time, “Walgreens will be at all sites providing doses and giving the shots for all high-dose flu shots, as highly recommended for anyone age 65 or older,” Bialik said. “They volunteered to do the high dosage (shots). They’re providing 750 doses to the six schools.”
Of the 750, he said Farragut will have 250 doses available.
“And (Walgreens) is going to work with us on our ‘drive-by shootings,’ for people who have mobility issues that we give them a shot in the car,” Bialik said.
Additionally, “I believe we will have 900 quadrivalent flu shots, (which will treat four strands of the flu),” he said.
Bialik has been chairman of Flu Shot Saturday since 2007.
“It’s kind of a passion of mine because when I first got involved with it, my wife and I were primary caregivers for her parents,” Bialik said. “If we walked in with the flu, it could have killed them, so I see (getting the shots) as a good thing.
“If you’re coming and you have any kind of insurance at all — Medicare, Medicaid, whatever — it would be helpful,” he said. “If you don’t have it, don’t worry, still come. You will still get your shot.”
While the shots are free, Bialik said RCF will be asking for donations for News Sentinel’s Empty Stocking Fund, which provides food and Christmas families in Knox County who are in need.
