Vaccination ‘Fiesta’ on Cinco de Mayo at Imagine Nation Brewing

The Missoula City County Health Department will hold what they are calling a ‘Vaccination Fiesta’ clinic on Wednesday, May 5 also known as Cinco de Mayo at the Imagine Nation Brewing on West Broadway.

KGVO spoke to the owner of Imagine Nation Brewing Robert Rivers on Monday about the clinic on Wednesday afternoon.

“We reached out to the health department to see if there's any way that we could support them in their efforts in this final push to get as many people vaccinated as possible,” said Rivers. “In the past, the health department has come to do flu shots or HIV tests, and so we asked if they'd be willing to come and do vaccinations for COVID at the brewery. They came back with a wonderful idea to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with what they're calling a vaccination fiesta.”

Rivers said he and his wife shared with the health department that there was a deeply personal reason why they wanted to host Wednesday’s event.

“Last week, a friend of my wife and I lost a very close friend of ours in Brazil,” he said. “He's 46 years old and a community organizer in Brazil, and he picked up COVID and died at the age of 46 just last week. A big piece of the reason why he passed away is because at the time there were not vaccinations available for folks.  I know that right now only about 13% of the world's population has access to this vaccine, which has been proven to be the quickest and easiest way for all of us to move through what has been a trying period for everybody.”

Rivers was happy to open his parking lot on Wednesday as a community service to see as many people as possible receive the Johnson and Johnson one-shot vaccine.

“We're so lucky even to have access to the vaccine, and we're lucky to have the health department here, who will come to us and make this as available to as many people as possible. I think right now we're just doing everything we can as a local business to collaborate with other agents in our society here and try and push the state across the finish line so that we can start building what I hope to be a new normal together beyond this pandemic.”

The free drive-in Vaccination Fiesta event will be starting at 3:00 p.m. in the parking lot at Imagine Nation Brewing, located at 1151 West Broadway.