COVID-19
RANGERS DELIVER HELP AND HOPE IN THE MIDST OF A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD YEAR, RANGERS PITCHED IN TO DO THE HARD, SOMETIMES RISKY, WORK OF EASING PANDEMIC-CAUSED SUFFERING.
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hroughout 2020, students and alumni helped with testing, made masks and served in myriad ways. In December, when vaccines to prevent COVID-19 were approved for widespread use and brought us all a glimmer of hope, Regis students, professors and alumni raised their hands, rolled up their sleeves and got busy. They answered the call to serve and made us proud. Here are just a few of their stories: Eustacia Bean To some, Eustacia Bean may be a second-year pharmacy student. But to dozens of seniors in northern Colorado, she’s a hero. When the first COVID-19 vaccines won emergency approval last winter, Bean had no intention of sitting by while watching others deliver the hope, relief and return to normal life the vaccines promised. “I really wanted to help. There’s 330 million people who need a vaccine and then they need a booster. I just have a general opinion that those of us who can help really should,” Bean said. She contacted everyone she could think of — local pharmacies, faculty in the Regis School of Pharmacy — seeking a way to connect syringes to people. As she waited to be dispatched to vaccinate the first eligible group — those 70 and older — she studied videos on how to administer the vaccines.
Pharmacy student Eustacia Bean volunteered at vaccine clinics around the state.
I GAVE SHOTS TO MORE THAN ONE PERSON WHO SAT DOWN AND STARTED CRYING, AND SAID, ‘I’M SO HAPPY, SO OVERWHELMED TO GET THIS VACCINE.’ ~ EUSTACIA BEAN ~
Eventually, Walgreen’s sent her to a care facility in Fort Collins. Bean, who lives in Erie, Colo., returned to Larimer County often to vaccinate elderly residents. And each time, she found seniors who were apprehensive, and very grateful. “The elderly have seen more friends and family die than we have,” Bean said. “So, I gave shots to more than one person who sat down and started crying, and said, ‘I’m so happy, so overwhelmed to get this vaccine.’” Once winter break ended, classes took up much of her time. But Bean is still squeezing in weekend clinics whenever possible. She was notably present delivering vaccines into the arms of Regis community members at a March 22 pop-up clinic. “As long as I’m not failing any classes, I’ll keep doing it,” she said. Bean, a Marine Corps veteran who grew up in a small, upstate New York town where her family were volunteer firefighters, can’t imagine not pitching in. “I was raised to help.” — KA
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Spring /Summer 2021 | R EG I S U N I V E R S I T Y M AG A ZI N E
