Kids, parents all smiles for first day of child vaccinations

At long last, parents and kids excitedly trekked to vaccine clinics across the province Wednesday for the first day of child vaccinations in Saskatchewan.

The province received 112,000 doses of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine this week — enough for a first dose for all Saskatchewan children aged five to 11 who want to get a shot.

At Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park vaccine clinic, kids walked outside wearing masks covered in colourful dinosaurs alongside smiling parents and grandparents.

Gracyn Olver, 11, was excited to finally have some protection from COVID-19.

“I’m not worried,” she said about getting her vaccine. “I think it’ll be like my flu shot — it didn’t hurt at all.”

Rogan Knaus walked outside with his father and yelled “I got the vaccine” with a big smile.

He said his dad, Steven, told him he did a good job.

The chance to get Rogan vaccinated is something Steven is very thankful for.

“I was very excited to have the opportunity to get them vaccinated,” he said.

“We’ve been avoiding a lot of get-togethers with concerns with our little ones and finally having the chance to have a little more confidence getting together with large groups is really exciting, especially before Christmas.”

Jason Wilson said it wasn’t hard to tell his nine-year-old daughter, Ella, that she’d be going for a needle, even though she was nervous.

“Ella’s very brave and knew that it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Both Wilson and Ella’s mother, Michelle, went to the clinic to support their daughter in getting her vaccine.

“(We’re) very excited. (We’ve been) waiting to do that for a while,” Wilson said. “It’s available, it’s fast, it’s easy and it doesn’t take long.”

Michelle said she’s happy to have Ella’s first shot done.

“(It’s) a step in the right direction. We’re ready for two (shots) but we’re happy with one and the SHA did a really wonderful job,” she said.

Ella wanted to tell other kids the shot is “OK,” and it means she can soon go over to her best friend Mikayla’s house for pizza.

Five-year-old Luca Lamb went for her shot in a shirt that said “Vaccines cause adults.”

She wants kids to know the shot hurt, but only a little — and she’s already ready for her second shot.

“I was scared,” she said. Her guardians said she only said “Ow” when she got her needle.

Lamb knows the vaccine will “keep you safe.”

As she left the parking lot, her guardians could be heard saying something about a trip to McDonald’s.