Shot@Life Champions Make An Impact on Capitol Hill
Feb 11, 2013
Today’s guest post was written by Melody Butler of Nurses Who Vaccinate. Yesterday, as she traveled to Washington, DC, she began her journey as a Shot@Life champion. You can follow her adventures on Twitter @nurseswhovax and follow the hashtag #globalvax for updates on the Shot@Life summit she is attending.
I am currently aboard the Amtrak train 157 to Washington D.C, and it’s a great time to ask and respond to a very important question.
Why am I, a pediatric nurse from Long Island, heading to America’s Capitol?
The answer – #GlobalVax.
It’s the theme of this year’s Shot@Life’s Champion Summit, which I am honored to have been selected to attend with other dedicated and enthusiastic vaccine professionals. One hundred Champions have been given the unique opportunity to meet up in America’s Capitol to learn from leaders of top global health organizations, work together to cultivate ideas to promote immunization, and enjoy the company of other evidence-based child health activists. Although this trip required leaving my incredible husband and four amazing children for four days, the amount of progress my fellow champions and I will accomplish when we visit Capitol Hill, the education we will receive from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the information that will be relayed to us by the UN Foundation and Every Child by Two/Vaccinate Your Baby will be an invaluable, worthy, and extraordinary experience.
Before I left, I explained to my oldest why I was traveling to Washington, and what I hope to accomplish. After listening to the planned agenda, seeing other Champions detailing their overseas advocacy, and hearing the heartbreaking stories about vaccine-preventable diseases, he turned to me and simply said, “I’ll miss you, but you have a lot of work to do to help those other kids.”
Yes, yes we do.
As part of today’s training, Shot@Life Champions will be visiting Capitol Hill. They have scheduled 85 different meetings with members of Congress to talk about the importance of global heath and vaccines. If you want to learn how you can reach out to your Congressional Representatives without traveling to DC, check out these tools and be sure to watch the video below from a fellow mom and Shot@Life Champion.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/HigctxavSpE]
And if you are looking for a bit of motivation, check out Shot@Life’s 28 Days of Impact, where each day in February they will feature a personal story related to vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases.
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