2025:

• Launch new VashonBePrepared website

2024:

• 2024’s accomplishments coming soon.

2023:

• At the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Preparedness Summit and American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference, Dr. Jim Bristow (Vashon MRC) and team presented abstracts for two papers by Dr. Jim Bristow et al:“Unraveling the contributions of demography, geographic isolation and public health measures to cumulative COVID-19 incidence in the Puget Sound region” and “Successful implementation of an all-volunteer, community-based COVID-19 response program: the Vashon WA Medical Reserve Corps experience.”
• Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) team ran Field Treatment Site exercise with VIFR, MedicOne, SeaMar and others – a historic partnership
• MRC/EOC/VIFR coordinated with King County Public Health Reserve Corps on public vaccination programs
• Received grants from NACCHO (MRC) and PSE (EOC) for Vashon projects.
• Supported public AED by Sam Yates Community Foundation
• MRC personnel provided health screenings at Health Fairs
• Public information team delivered weekly newsletters up to #119, read by over 2,400 readers and published in Vashon Beachcomber
• EOC team collaborated with VIFR and others to launch Mobile Command Post project.
• MRC enhanced medical, supplies caches in partnership with Vashon Pharmacy/VIFR.
• Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS), Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Marine Emergency Response Team (MERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) held monthly meetings, field exercises, training sessions, and drill nights.
• Helped neighborhood groups form Neighborhood Emergency Response Orgs (NEROs)
• Weekly monitoring and public communications on COVID risk level.
• VIFR facilitated receipt of $77k FEMA reimbursement of Relief Fund expenses
• Teams staffed Prepare Fair tables at VIFR’s October open house
• Facilitated Bloodworks NW mobile blood drive on Vashon (first since pandemic began)

2022:

• Continuing efforts on pandemic response
• Prepared for and participated in FEMA National Level Exercise: Cascadia 2022
• Received King County reimbursement of over $250k in pandemic expenses

2021:

• Continued coordination of Vashon pandemic response with multiple partner groups and social service agencies, and providing testing and vaccinations.
• Over 32,000 hours contributed by volunteers, in addition to thousands more hours by CERT team members.
• Vashon COVID Relief Fund continued to support community efforts at health care, food, shelter, and economic recovery, including testing, vaccination, public health outreach and education.
• Preparation for FEMA National Level Exercise: Cascadia 2022
• Collaborated with VIFR to provide Vashon updates to King County Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan

2020:

• Initiated Vashon pandemic response on March 12, 2020, focused on four main community objectives: health care, food, shelter, economic recovery.
• Published weekly Situation Reports to keep community informed
• Hosted two virtual town hall meetings, each attended by over 1,000 participants
• Trained and guided over 300 volunteers
• MRC/CERT/EOC conceived and operated Vashon’s Test and Trace program, contact-tracing over 42 case clusters on the island, identifying 178 contacts and 47 additional cases among those contacts. As of September 2021, the testing program had performed over 3,571 COVID-19 tests, supplying more than 38% of all tests for Vashon residents, and had identified 80 of 121 reported cases on Vashon, about half of which occurred during winter 2020’s third wave.
• Coordinated situational awareness and funding with many social service agencies
• Raised $325,000 in donations to support community pandemic response
• Funded over 12,000 meals, nearly 2,000 bags of groceries, advocacy and counseling, business reopening workshops, employee assistance to receive benefits.

See previous accomplishments