DAYTON, Ohio — With a walkie talkie in hand, a clear voice and a friendly demeanor, Joey Barrow’s job is to put anyone coming in for the coronavirus vaccine at ease. Barrow is there to direct traffic, guide patients who need it and lead a team of volunteers tasked with doing the same, all to ensure anyone coming in for a shot can get one at the Dayton Convention Center.
The area’s largest vaccination clinic, within weeks of setting it up, public health has worked its way up to distributing roughly 2,000 doses a day, thanks in large part to the volunteers helping it run as efficiently as possible.
Barrow is no stranger to missions. In fact, that’s where the Navy veteran thrives.
Though he may not have pictured so many of those missions taking place in a parking garage, Barrow said he’s happy to serve any way he can against what he calls the invisible enemy: The coronavirus.
“We understand that this is a war,” he said. “It has to be fought. It has to be fought on all fronts.”
To Barrow, fighting means staying home when you can, masking up, keeping your distance and now, ensuring a smooth vaccination process.
“So getting veterans in here to help with that to help usher people along to help fight this war is perfect,” he said.
Barrow is a member of Team Rubicon, a volunteer group for veterans and former first responders. Usually, the group manages disaster relief but in January the group added vaccination support efforts to its repertoire. Barrow knew he wanted to take charge.
He started by leading a handful of veteran volunteers.
“Now that the numbers are increased we’re out here in operational status, which is great,” Barrow said.
That means more resources and more support to make the Team Rubicon volunteers a semi-permanent feature at the vaccine site, which is why he’s now able relieving local emergency workers to lead the convention center’s traffic team.
So far, patients like David Shon, have been supplying glowing reviews.
“They’re very nice people, very well-run, very friendly people, well-trained,” he listed.
Shon said he already got both of his doses earlier in the month, but he brought his wife back to the convention center because he knew she’d be well taken care of.
Barrow said stories like that is the reason he serves.
If he had his way, he’d still be in the Navy, but due to another invisible enemy, he had to be discharged early.
“I’m a two-time survivor,” he said. “Two-time brain cancer survivor.”
Barrow wasn’t able to return to the military after his treatment, but he said he still needed a way to find the purpose he felt while in the Navy.
“Team Rubicon helped me find that service again,” he said.
Barrow is still keeping his community safe, alongside fellow service-members, now on the streets of Dayton as the city faces that persistent, invisible enemy.
Team Rubicon has vaccine support operations in seventeen states so far across the country. Dayton’s is one of the largest and the only one in Ohio.
