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Updated: March 1, 2021

Seacoast Mission brings first COVID-19 vaccination clinics to Maine islands 

Courtesy / Maine Seacoast Mission The Sunbeam left its Northeast Harbor berth on Friday for a two-day trip to vaccinate islanders.
By Laurie Schreiber

Maine Seacoast Mission, a Mount Desert Island nonprofit that serves islands and coastal communities, sent its telemedicine ship out to five islands last week to conduct its first COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Medical and support staff, led by the mission’s island health services director, Sharon Daley, traveled primarily aboard the mission’s 74-foot boat, Sunbeam. 

“Everything I'm doing seems to be COVID-related, and it's been a real rollercoaster ride for the last week,” Daley said in a news release. 

Thanks to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Mount Desert Island Hospital, Daley had an initial 150 vaccines. The mission’s island outreach director, Douglas Cornman, has been working closely with island communities to register people and the Sunbeam’s captain, Michael Johnson, has been scheduling trips.

“We have to have an accurate count for each island,” Daley said. “And we have to figure out rotation of the islands so we're not ending up short of vaccines or with vaccines left over.”

Courtesy / Maine Seacoast Mission
On Thursday, nurses Maureen Griffin from Mount Desert Island Hospital, left, and the mission’s island health services director, Sharon Daley, traveled to Swans Island from Bass Harbor on the Swan's Island ferry to conduct the mission’s first vaccination clinic.

She added, “I have a couple of great nurses who are going with me.”

Daley, Cornman and the mission’s president, John Zavodny, made their first trip to Swans Island on Thursday, Feb. 25 via state ferry. Swans Island one of the mission’s bigger single clinics, Zavodny told Mainebiz.

On Friday, the mission left on the Sunbeam, with Johnson at the helm and with the ship’s steward, Jillian (who goes by one name), for a two-day trip to the islands of Great Cranberry, Islesford, Frenchboro and Isle au Haut.

Courtesy / Maine Seacoast Mission
Mike Johnson captains the Sunbeam.

So far, the mission has vaccinated 136 island residents: 61 on Swan’s Island, 13 on Great Cranberry, six on Islesford, 16 on Frenchboro and 40 on Isle au Haut.

“The historic nature of the trip was not lost on our team or on the islanders,” Zavodny said in an email update this morning. “From the lobstermen who gave us short rides to those who let us borrow their cars on the islands, everyone thanked us, everyone said that the mission is always there for us.”

He continued, “One person asked Sharon Daley whether she has ever been part of anything more important. She just shook her head. Later she told me that the day-to-day work of the mission is overall more significant, but no single event compares to the crisis response underway.”

Reception by the islanders, he added, “has been an incredible blend of hope, relief, cautious optimism and pure joy. Mostly joy. One female islander in her 70s danced her way from registration to vaccine station to the waiting room and out the door giving the victory sign to anyone who looked her way. It was quite a celebration. All from a distance, of course.”

Plans are in the works for trips to Matinicus and Monhegan this week, Zavodny said.

The plan, weather permitting, is to travel to Monhegan on Wednesday by ferry and to Matinicus on Thursday by plane.

“Most of the crew is getting their second dose this week, so alternative travel is necessary to continue the effort without interruption,” he explained.

The mission is working with the islands and the Maine CDC on a rollout plan for single-dose vaccines as available and in support of the new age-based guidelines, he added.

Some islands are conducting their own vaccination clinics and won’t need the mission’s services, he added.

The mission, headquartered in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island, is working in partnership with island residents, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, county officials, Mount Desert Island Hospital and Pen Bay Medical Center on the vaccination program.

The vaccine clinics are expected to continue for months. The Moderna vaccine requires a second dose approximately 28 days after the first. 

Swans Island has its own health center, where the mission’s vaccination clinic was conducted. Other islands are hosting the clinics in community buildings. The mission isn’t allowing visitors on the Sunbeam for now.

“Several people remarked that this was the first time they had seen many of their neighbors in almost a year, because of the pandemic,” Zavodny reported. “I heard one man say, ‘It’s like an island potluck! With social distancing.’ I can’t wait for the return trips to see those same folks again for their second dose. I can only imagine how good they’ll feel then.”

The boat and crew are well-prepared for the assignment. The first Sunbeam trip after the boat’s recent refit was to conduct flu clinics under COVID restrictions.  

The Sunbeam is equipped with health facilities that include a medical-grade refrigerator. 

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