TINA TRASTER POLAK, Staff Writer
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
10-09-1994
FREE IMMUNIZATION CLINICS OFFERED -- THEIR BEST SHOT VOLUNTEER EFFORT AIMS
TO KEEP KIDS HEALTHY
By TINA TRASTER POLAK, Staff Writer
Date: 10-09-1994, Sunday
Section: NEWS
Edition: All Editions -- Sunday
Things were going just fine for 19-month-old Shane McDermott. He
had a pink balloon in one hand, an orange lollipop in the other, and a
painted ladybug on his face. Then came the big jab.
Tears streamed down Shane's cheeks, smearing his ladybug, but his
grandmother, Inez Deas, felt relieved.
'I brought him here because it's free,' said Deas, one of 30
Paterson residents who attended a free immunization clinic at the city's
Public School 6 on Saturday.
Deas, who is retired and is minding Shane and his 6-month-old
sister, said she did not have the money to get the boy inoculated
against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis -- the vaccines for which are
combined in one shot -- and polio.
Shane is not an exception.
Only 3.2 percent of the children of Paterson are immunized by the
age of 2, said Carlla Horton, acting executive director of the Paterson
Interfaith Communities Organization.
The organization, with the help of an $8,000 grant from the state
Department of Health's Office of Minority Health, and volunteers from
city schools and hospitals, is leading a drive to immunize the city's
children, especially those from poorer immigrant and African-American
neighborhoods.
Additional clinics will be held on Oct. 15 and Oct. 29 at School 9,
and on Oct. 22 at School 6.
Joseph Sinatra Fulmore, principal of Public School 6, said many of
Paterson's mothers are raising children alone, and many are unaware that
children need to be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis --
also known as whooping cough -- polio, measles, mumps, and rubella before
they begin kindergarten.
'It's so hard for babies having babies,' Fulmore said, referring to
the city's many teenage mothers. 'They themselves need guidance --
sometimes they don't even know their kids need to be inoculated.'
Fulmore said about 20 children who started kindergarten this year
did not have proper immunizations. There are 175 kindergarten students
in Public School 6.
Volunteers from Hope for Kids, a Harlem-based group that has fanned
into urban neighborhoods to educate parents about immunization, will
continue going door-to-door to recruit mothers and guardians. They have
been distributing vaccination literature in Arabic, Spanish, and
English.
If a Hope for Kids volunteer had not knocked on her door, Mirla
Gonzalez would not have known about the clinics.
The 15-year-old mother, who was bouncing her 9-month-old son,
Victor, on her lap during a visit to the immunization clinic, said, 'I
don't have any money or health insurance.'
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - Shane
McDermott getting a checkup from Dr. Mercedes Lesesne at a Paterson clinic Saturday.
Keywords: PATERSON. CHILD. HEALTH
Copyright 1994 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
10-09-1994
FREE IMMUNIZATION CLINICS OFFERED -- THEIR BEST SHOT VOLUNTEER EFFORT AIMS
TO KEEP KIDS HEALTHY
By TINA TRASTER POLAK, Staff Writer
Date: 10-09-1994, Sunday
Section: NEWS
Edition: All Editions -- Sunday
Things were going just fine for 19-month-old Shane McDermott. He
had a pink balloon in one hand, an orange lollipop in the other, and a
painted ladybug on his face. Then came the big jab.
Tears streamed down Shane's cheeks, smearing his ladybug, but his
grandmother, Inez Deas, felt relieved.
'I brought him here because it's free,' said Deas, one of 30
Paterson residents who attended a free immunization clinic at the city's
Public School 6 on Saturday.
Deas, who is retired and is minding Shane and his 6-month-old
sister, said she did not have the money to get the boy inoculated
against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis -- the vaccines for which are
combined in one shot -- and polio.
Shane is not an exception.
Only 3.2 percent of the children of Paterson are immunized by the
age of 2, said Carlla Horton, acting executive director of the Paterson
Interfaith Communities Organization.
The organization, with the help of an $8,000 grant from the state
Department of Health's Office of Minority Health, and volunteers from
city schools and hospitals, is leading a drive to immunize the city's
children, especially those from poorer immigrant and African-American
neighborhoods.
Additional clinics will be held on Oct. 15 and Oct. 29 at School 9,
and on Oct. 22 at School 6.
Joseph Sinatra Fulmore, principal of Public School 6, said many of
Paterson's mothers are raising children alone, and many are unaware that
children need to be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis --
also known as whooping cough -- polio, measles, mumps, and rubella before
they begin kindergarten.
'It's so hard for babies having babies,' Fulmore said, referring to
the city's many teenage mothers. 'They themselves need guidance --
sometimes they don't even know their kids need to be inoculated.'
Fulmore said about 20 children who started kindergarten this year
did not have proper immunizations. There are 175 kindergarten students
in Public School 6.
Volunteers from Hope for Kids, a Harlem-based group that has fanned
into urban neighborhoods to educate parents about immunization, will
continue going door-to-door to recruit mothers and guardians. They have
been distributing vaccination literature in Arabic, Spanish, and
English.
If a Hope for Kids volunteer had not knocked on her door, Mirla
Gonzalez would not have known about the clinics.
The 15-year-old mother, who was bouncing her 9-month-old son,
Victor, on her lap during a visit to the immunization clinic, said, 'I
don't have any money or health insurance.'
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - Shane
McDermott getting a checkup from Dr. Mercedes Lesesne at a Paterson clinic Saturday.
Keywords: PATERSON. CHILD. HEALTH
Copyright 1994 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
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