Challenge Coin, Greenbelt Metro Community Vaccination Center
date: label: date made
content: 2021
name: label: Associated Name
content: Federal Emergency Management Agency
notes: label: Description
content: Plastic "challenge coin" given to the members of the USAF 335th Expeditionary Medical Operations Squadron deployed at the Greenbelt Metro Community Vaccination Center. One side of the coin has the Maryland flag, the other side has the image of the patch created for the deployment (see 2022.0037.15) - a DC Metro car "transformer" attacking the corona virus with two syringe-like arms.
label: Description
content: The Greenbelt Metro Community Vaccination Center (CVC) was established and run by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) in partnership with Maryland state and local government. The vaccination center was open from April 7, 2021, through June 1, 2021, and had the capacity to administer 3,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses per day. In total, nearly 120,000 doses of vaccine were administered at the center. The center provided both the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the one-dose Janssen (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine.
label: Description
content: The center was constructed in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in the parking lot of the Greenbelt Metro Station. The county was experiencing lower vaccination rates than much of the DC region and had a diverse population in terms of race, ethnicity, and income levels. The metro location helped facilitate public access. To help alleviate language and disability barriers to vaccination, the Greenbelt CVC provided on-site interpreters for eight different spoken languages, as well as American Sign Language (ASL) and Certified Deaf Interpreters (CDI). Posters located at the site assured participants that no US immigration officials or enforcement (ICE) would be present at or near the vaccination center.
label: Description
content: Vaccine recipients at the CVC were invited to complete the statement “I got my COVID Shot Today! Because …” on small posters designed for the site. These individual statements papered the walls of the Observation Area and became a backdrop for “selfies” and media reports. Due to the enthusiastic response to this initiative, FEMA created “I am helping at the Greenbelt CVC Because…” posters for staff and volunteers to complete.
label: Description
content: As a large, government sponsored operation in the Washington area, the Greenbelt site attracted its share of media attention and VIP visits. Former President Barack Obama visited the site on May 6, 2021, and signed the poster, “Share Your Story! Cuentenos su historia!”, which marked the designated “selfie” area.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: Maryland, Greenbelt
topic: label: Subject
content: Vaccination
label: Subject
content: Public Health
label: related event
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0037.16
label: accession number
content: 2022.0037
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0037.16
objectType: label: Object Name
content: challenge coin, vaccination center
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .4 cm x 4 cm; 5/32 in x 1 9/16 in