When the Texas Department of State Health Services is ready to open flu shot clinics in Blanco County this fall, two dozen freshly trained volunteers will be ready to help run them.

They expect to get their first test with this season’s flu shot clinics, both the regular seasonal flu and the H1N1 swine flu. But it is in health emergencies that the training really pays off for the community.

We had a meningitis outbreak in East Texas,” said DSHS trainer Jacque Hagerty, “and had to vaccinate 50,000 people in five days. We can pull together enough medical staff to be shooters, but we couldn’t handle the rest of the jobs without volunteers who know what they’re doing.”

Those other jobs may range from greeting people at the door to helping them with paperwork to keeping traffic flowing.

”They’ll be valuable in the flu shot clinics,” explained Hagerty, “but it will be more like a drill because the urgency and pressure won’t be there. The real test would come in a disease outbreak, or after a flood, or if terrorists strike. Then their work makes a life-and-death difference.”

The three training classes here were set up in cooperation with the Blanco County Disaster Response Group. They were held at New Hope Lutheran Church in Blanco, First United Methodist Church in Johnson City, and St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cypress Mill.

To join the disaster response group, volunteer for future shot clinics, or help with the county swine flu support network, go to the BCDRG website at www.BlancoCounty DisasterResponseGroup.org/ or call George Barnette at 713-252-2288.