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Olmsted County recognizes pandemic partnerships in “A Community United” event

  • News
  • Jul 6, 2021

Olmsted County hosted an invitation only event on July 6, 2021 in Floral Hall at Graham Park to recognize individuals, teams, and organizations that were instrumental in the COVID-19 response in our community.

Approximately 300 people were invited to attend today’s event and represented several organizations in the community including the City of Rochester, Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, and Olmsted County.

The event featured the following speakers:

  • Stephanie Podulke, chair, Olmsted County Board of Commissioners
  • Jan Malcolm, commissioner, Minnesota Department of Health
  • Amy Williams, M.D., executive dean of practice, Mayo Clinic
  • Tom Graham, director of Plant Operations, Olmsted Medical Center; chair, Southeast Minnesota Disaster Health Coalition
  • Audrey Betcher, director, Rochester Public Library
Audience gathered in Floral Hall for "A Community United" event

As Commissioner Podulke stated, there were so many aspects to the pandemic response in Olmsted County.

“Some in the room were involved in sharing information about COVID with our community. Some of you answered questions from residents and directed them to resources for help. Others played a key role in testing residents for COVID and following up with people who tested positive. Some of you were responsible for contact tracing and getting in touch with people who were close contacts of a person who tested positive. And some of you helped ensure the vaccine was widely available and accessible to hep finally move us through the pandemic,” said Podulke.

An overarching theme throughout all of the speeches at today’s “A Community United” event was collaboration – how so many organizations came together and worked together to help the Olmsted County community.

“We are not done with COVID yet. There are still unvaccinated people in our community, variants that we need to learn more about, and precautions we still need to take. However, having seen the collaboration and partnerships built throughout Olmsted County this past year, I’m confident we have the strength to continue pulling through what is yet to come,” Podulke continued.