An Alabama woman has worked to get 94% of the residents in her town vaccinated, The New Yorker reports.

Dorothy Oliver, a general store owner, is on a mission to get her hometown of Panola, Alabama, fully vaccinated.

Oliver has helped organize pop-up clinics in the city with about 400 residents and her efforts have been documented by The New Yorker in a piece titled The Panola Project.

Directed by Rachel DeCruz and Jeremy S. Levine, the video documents Oliver’s efforts to ensure all residents of the small town are informed about the vaccine and will receive it.

Oliver, along with county commissioner Drucilla Russ-Jackson, asked the closest hospital to set up a pop-up site in their town. If Oliver and Russ Jackson could get at least 40 residents confirmed to receive the vaccine, the hospital agreed to come to the town.

The closest vaccination center to the town is 40 miles away.

“I just felt like I had to do it because the government, nobody does enough in this area,” she said. “This area here is majority Black kind of puts you on the back burner. That’s just it. I mean, you don’t have to put nothing else with that. That’s just it. I don’t have to elaborate on that one.”

Oliver says she simply asks the residents to sign up for the vaccine by being kind.

“I just be nice to them,” she explained. “I don’t go at them saying, ‘You gotta do that.”

In one scene in the documentary, Oliver is seen driving to the residence of a young man named LaDenzel Colvin to convince him to take the vaccine. When Colvin is asked if he’s going to receive the shot, he was hesitant about it.

“I just really haven’t made my mind up to take it for real,” Colvin said.

Although Colvin previously had COVID-19, he said he was concerned about the side effects he heard from people who got the vaccine.

After speaking with Oliver, Colvin was convinced to sign up for the vaccine. When he arrived at the pop-up site, Colvin stayed in his car and received the shot through his car window. The shot administrator told him to take Tylenol if he experienced any side effects.

Currently, Alabama is seeing significant increases in COVID-19 cases, particularly in children. According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, at least 50 children in the state are being treated for coronavirus.

With Alabama remaining a hotspot for COVID-19, Oliver is still committed to making sure her entire town is vaccinated. 

“I have the names of everyone who hasn’t been vaccinated, and I’m still working on them,” she said.

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