UW College of Health Sciences Students, Volunteers Commemorate Campus Vaccination Effort | News

June 28, 2022

Toward the shut of the University of Wyoming’s COVID vaccination effort in spring 2021, college students from the faculties of Nursing and Pharmacy, together with faculty school members and well being care staff from all through Laramie, determined to create a show to commemorate UW’s vaccination effort.

The college students and different volunteers anchored about 500 emptied vaccine vials to a picket body common after UW’s iconic bucking horse and rider image.

Marcela Gramcko Wietstruck, a 2022 graduate of the School of Pharmacy, labored with different college students to create the show.

“I was inspired by all of the hard-working volunteers, students, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals who were giving the vaccines at the clinic — how many vaccines we were being given a day and the amazing community of Laramie coming in with happy faces to put in their effort and get immunized,” Wietstruck says. “It was one of the greatest examples of teamwork I have ever been part of, and I did not want it to go unnoticed.”

Wietstruck credit members of her pharmacy class, together with different volunteers, for serving to to create the show.

“I have to thank Dr. Joe Russo, adjunct faculty with the School of Teacher Education, for helping me make the shape of Steamboat in wood,” Wietstruck says. “Also, I thank my classmates Danna Hanks, from Powell, Lauren Hinckley, from Lovell, and James Graber, from Rapid City, S.D., and Dr. Melissa Hunter for helping me collect all of the vials. And, of course, all of the volunteers, students and health care professionals who gave shots every day for many months; none of these could have been done without them.”

Hunter is the School of Pharmacy’s Drug Information Center director.

After the “vaccine bucking horse” show was accomplished in April 2021, all of the volunteers who helped assemble the vaccine show autographed its bottom.

“The College of Health Sciences students were instrumental in establishing and operating the clinic, particularly in the early months,” says Kem Krueger, dean and an affiliate professor with the School of Pharmacy. “I enjoyed watching the students interact with personnel from Albany County Public Health, Ivinson Memorial Hospital, the volunteer nurses and the many volunteers from across the county.” 

An excellent portion of the success in getting a lot of the UW neighborhood vaccinated forward of returning to in-person lessons in fall 2021 is credited to Krueger and David Jones, retiring dean and professor within the College of Health Sciences. Their management helped arrange vaccine distribution websites on and round campus and helped direct pupil and college volunteers in administering the vaccines.

Once it’s positioned in a safe body for viewing, the vaccine show’s “forever home” might be within the College of Health Sciences Building.