HANAPEPE — Free at-home COVID self-tests were distributed Wednesday at the Hanapepe Recreation Center by the county, but that wasn’t the only place.
“There were a lot of people there from 7:30 this morning,” said Lt. Amy Lewis, commander of The Salvation Army Hanapepe Corps, and Dr. Mike Shay, a volunteering physician with the Project Vision mobile-hot-shower unit. “We thought they were having a football game or something. But it was over by 9:30 a.m.”
Free home COVID self-tests were also being distributed at The Salvation Army Hanapepe Corps by Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i as part of its Point in Time participation, to account for the houseless.
“We’re part of the Point in Time, where teams of us go around the island to make contact with the homeless,” said June Munoz, a Ho‘ola outreach worker. “Some of these people don’t have mailing addresses, so we have tests and a personal-hygiene kit that they can take with them.”
Shay, who set up a medical clinic inside the social hall with the help of both Project Vision and The Salvation Army, said Ho‘ola Lahui primarily connects people with different services, like helping those with difficulties to register for the free federal at-home COVID tests that became available last week. Medical services such as treating open wounds, insect bites, scrapes and more are also provided.
“We have him for about five more weeks,” said Allen Huber of Project Vision. “He came in answer to a social-media post we did. But now he’s gotta go be a grandpa, so we’re looking for more volunteers like him and the registered nurse who helps at the Ho‘omana Thrift Store (in Wailua).”
Lewis said the Project Vision program is an expansion of services to address needs. The group has opened a mobile-hot-shower unit, offers vision screening and eyeglasses, and now, the clinic.
“If you wait a few minutes, we’ll be having Noelle Lau and Sarah Shane of the Wilcox Health arriving to offer flu and pneumonia shots,” Lewis said. “Not the COVID vaccine, or booster shots, but flu and pneumonia shots.”
With the attention on the COVID-19 virus and its omicron variant, Wednesday was a clear demonstration of growing from simply offering hot meals to a range of services to fill the need in the community, the meal bringing resource people together to answer the needs of the community.
