Advocate2Vaccinate 2021 Recap

Meeting with Senator Schumer’s office.

Every spring, Shot@Life supporters from across the nation use their voices to help increase vaccine access for children all over the world during Advocate2Vaccinate. This year, Shot@Life advocates from all 50 states successfully rallied together to raise awareness around the importance of vaccine equity, investments in global vaccine programs in the 2022 U.S. budget, and how vaccines bring us closer during World Immunization Week.

Despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic posed, our grassroots advocates managed to exceed all goals. They conducted 91 meetings with Congressional offices, made 237 calls to their representatives, submitted 31 letters to the editor in their local media outlets, and sent 2,363 emails and 870 tweets to members of Congress to share why #VaccinesWork.

Published Letters to the Editor:

Champions put pen to paper and submitted 31 letters to the editor, exceeding our goal of 25! For a full list of published letters, check out our news page.

Idaho: Idaho Statesman; Post Falls Press

Iowa: Quad-City Times

Kansas: Kansas City Star

Missouri: West News Magazine

New York: New York Times; ScienceDirect

North Carolina: Warren Record

Virginia: Virginian Pilot; Roanoke Times; Virginian Pilot; Imprint

Champion Spotlight: 

Oklahoma and Texas Champion Lead Felisa Hilbert showed the importance of building strong relationships with members of Congress when Derek Osborn Tulsa, field office Director for Senator Lankford, drove to her home office to meet and learn about the need to support global immunization programs. 

To commemorate her extraordinary 10 years of advocacy with Shot@Life, Felisa held an in-person formal dinner event with friends to raise awareness and fundraising. During her event, Felisa shared stories from the field and her experiences as a Shot@Life Champion. Each guest donated $25– enough to fully vaccinate 1 child– and Felisa made and sold gift baskets as another fundraising tool.

“My goal was to do one action each day to show that #VaccinesWork, are safe, and save lives.” – Felisa Hilbert

World Immunization Week 2021 Recap:

This year’s World Immunization Week highlighted the many ways vaccines bring us closer. Our advocates took to Twitter to advocate for the importance of global vaccine access for all—not only to end the pandemic, but to end vaccine-preventable deaths worldwide.

Check out our World Immunization Week Congressional support. 

Want to become a Shot@Life Champion?

Visit shotatlife.org/take-action or sign up for one of our upcoming trainings. 

Thank you for your advocacy!