Marye Steele calls herself a reservationist at the Nova Family Campground in Port Orange, where she works in the front office checking campers in and making sure they have the supplies they need.
But lately, she’s been making reservations of a different kind. Steele has been helping residents make appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.
She’s been remarkably successful, helping more than 50 people so far.
“I just feel like I’m just helping people,” Steele said. “People that couldn’t do it.”
Steele adds that many of the permanent and seasonal residents of the park are seniors who may not spend a lot of time online.
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“Some of them stay at home. They don’t have computers or they can’t get on,” Steele said.
Steele, also a resident of the park, comes to work early and on her days off in order to help. She says part of her technique is to log on to all the office computers and wait for the sessions to open. She says she’s had the best luck with the Publix application, although some have had to travel a bit of a distance to get to a store with an open appointment.
“The most I did in one day was eight,” she said. " I probably could have done more, but I had no one else to do it for.”
Linda and Richard Griffing have been spending winters at the park for the last few years. The two were excited to get the vaccine once they became eligible but disappointment soon set in.
“You know, we’d be in line for an appointment and all of a sudden all the appointments are gone,” Linda Griffing said.
“I’d just as soon throw the computer out the window,” said her husband, Richard, laughing as he remembered the frustration.
The two said they attempted to make an appointment more than six times.
Then Steele gave it a try.
“She said, ‘I’ll get you an appointment,’ and right away there they were. All set,” Linda Griffing said.
The couple was so impressed with Steele’s success and dedication to the Nova Campground residents that they nominated her for the News 6 Getting Results Award.
“People in the campground, anyone that needs one, she’s gotten it for us,” Richard Griffing said. “She has a very good heart and soul.”
Steele said she’s still being asked to help and she enjoys doing it.
“I just always hope that if it was my mother that somebody would help her,” she said. “So I just try to help as many as I can.”