Jamboree at Sumter County Civic Center will encourage vaccination for students

A local agency is hosting a back-to-school event intended to encourage parents and guardians to send their children back to school fully vaccinated.

"We are just trying to help the district with the initiative of face-to-face learning and to break the ice on the vaccine," said Linda Jackson, office administration chief at Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments. "We want to support the school district in making it a positive year with face-to-face learning because the kids are going back into the classroom and there is still a little bit of doubt from the parents and teachers about the vaccine, so we wanted to provide them with the right information. We are also going to have on-site vaccines if they are 12 years or older. It will be the Pfizer vaccine by Prisma Health. It is free."

According to public health data, Sumter County, the state's 15th most populous county, has the fourth-lowest rate in the state of residents who are fully vaccinated.

The event is called the High Five 2 Change Back-to-School Jamboree, and it will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sumter County Civic Center, 700 W. Liberty St., on Tuesday, July 27.

At the event, there will be two in-person keynote speakers: Senior Vice President of Prisma Health Dr. Vince Ford and State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell.

"It is going to be a huge event for all four counties where we will be partnering up with DHEC and Prisma on spreading the word on how important it is to get the vaccine," COG administrative assistant Kourtney S. Page said.