Today, COVID-19 vaccinations at the Camden Centre in Milan came with a discount and a show, both provided by the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.
QCSO cellist Hannah Holman performed while a socially-distanced crowd waited through a post-vaccine observation period.
“I loved it,” says Cassie Kruse. “At first, I thought they were just playing it on the radio or something, but then the woman who was vaccinating me was like, ‘Nope, they have someone here actually playing classical music.’”
Kruse, along with her teammates on the Augustana women’s basketball team, got the first dose of the vaccine at the TaxSlayer Center.
“This one was definitely a lot better. It was a lot faster. We waited for like an hour and a half at the TaxSlayer Center,” she says. “I actually left my vaccine card at home, and so I had to run home and come back here, and I still was in and out in 15 minutes.”
Janet Hill, Chief Operating Officer of the Rock Island County Health Department, organized the partnership between her department and the QCSO.
“I saw that Yo-Yo-Ma gave a performance during his vaccine waiting period and just was inspired by that beautiful moment. I thought that we have a great asset with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and decided to give a mutual friend a call, and we were able to get the symphony here pretty quickly.”
On their way out the door, patients can pick up a discount flyer for upcoming QSCO performances.
The next QCSO musician will be violinist Janis Sakai on Saturday, April 24 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
