Discos, luaus, '80s Vax-A-Thons: Themed vaccine events encourage people to get shots

Wilson Wong
Updated ·2 min read

Across the country, vaccination sites are coming up with creative solutions to encourage people in the U.S. to get their vaccine shots.

In cities both big and small, facilities are hosting themed events to break the tension and get people excited about being vaccinated against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — all while having some fun.

A vaccination site in Texas made headlines Saturday after hosting an '80’s-themed, 24-hour “Vax-A-Thon,” according to ABC affiliate KVUE. The Family Hospital Systems partnered with Williamson County to vaccinate 7,000 people in 24 hours at the Kelly Reeves Complex in Austin, the station reported.

Staff and volunteers, clad in masks, can be seen wearing neon-colored windbreaker tracksuits, shaggy wigs, and bright leg warmers at the drive-thru.

“This is Austin, baby,” resident Judy Brenstein told the station. “This is the way people should look when you come to get a vaccine."

Just northeast of Texas, staff members and residents at an assisted living facility in Bella Vista, Arkansas, “rode the wave” to their Covid-19 vaccinations earlier this year in luau-themed costumes, NBC affiliate KNWA reported.

Image: Halie Forstner at a Luau-themed vaccination event at Morning Pointe of Chattanooga at Shallowford campus in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Morning Pointe Senior Living)
Image: Halie Forstner at a Luau-themed vaccination event at Morning Pointe of Chattanooga at Shallowford campus in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Morning Pointe Senior Living)

Photos showed employees and residents dressed in grass hula skirts, coconut bras, flower headpieces and leis.

An assisted living home in Wisconsin threw it back to the '70s with a vaccination “disco party,” ABC affiliate WISN reported.

Nursing home residents could be seen smiling behind a mask while getting their vaccine shot against the backdrop of shiny gold streamers and rainbow-colored balloons at the Congregation Home in Brookfield, about 12 miles west of Milwaukee.

And in Kentucky, an assisted living home kicked off their vaccine event around Sylvester Stallone's 1976 boxing classic, “Rocky.”

Staff members and residents at The Lantern of Morning Pointe in Russell wore red, white and blue, listened to the movie’s theme song, and made homemade rocky road ice cream.

Many can be seen posing with red boxing gloves and raising their fists in front of a banner that read, “First round knock-out!”