Saratoga Chamber of Commerce (2021)
The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce announced today that the county met its goal of vaccinating 170,000 residents. That is, 85% of the eligible population has at least one shot. This was a primary goal for the group this year.
Todd Shimkus, executive director of the chamber, said that the group knew if the vaccine opened to children 12 and under, the county would easily hit the 170,000 mark, but the fact that the county hit the mark without children was remarkable.
“At the beginning of 2021, we partnered with Saratoga Hospital for the #IGotTheShot campaign with the goal of getting 170,000 residents vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Friday, October 1, we’ve met our #1 goal!,” the chamber wrote in an emailed newsletter.
Shimkus said with the chamber’s B2B Expo starting Tuesday afternoon, “the timing was pretty extraordinary” for his group.
This means about 9 of 10 people in the Saratoga Springs City Center will be vaccinated, he said, adding with a joke, “I’m rounding up.”
In the chamber newsletter, Chairman Skip Carlson wrote: “When we first set this goal, I was skeptical of whether we could make it happen this quickly. But through the efforts of the Saratoga Department of Public Health, our local healthcare providers, and fellow businesses, we made it happen.”
Shimkus called last winter and spring “the Hunger Games” a reference to the kill-or-be-killed book and movie franchise.
He recalled the phone calls and online apps and sign-up forms and how people called him hoping for help and how they drove three hours unsure if they would get the shots. People were serious he said.
But Saratoga is a city where groups gather. The Saratoga Race Track, SPAC, the bars, the Saratoga Casino and Hotel, these are group gathering spaces, and if the people who live here wanted them open again, they needed the vaccine, Shimkus said.
He said: “This was the only way we would be able to do what we want again.”