(NewsUSA)
- Despite the documented success of the various COVID-19 vaccines in preventing serious illness and death across a range of ages, many people in the United States, especially in rural communities, remain hesitant to getting vaccinated.
However, a new public service announcement focusing on love, respect, and humility is making inroads to encourage COVID-19 vaccination in rural communities. The GreenShoots Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to uplifting people across the social fabric of America, was launched in 2021 by Arkansas native and NYC-based financial services veteran Ted Huffman and his wife, Cheryl Huffman.
The foundation’s inaugural project is a COVID-19 vaccine awareness campaign focused on rural communities. The “Please Consider Vaccination” campaign includes outreach on radio, TV, digital media, and social media.
In the campaign’s signature video, a father in a rural community, travels from his farm to a church and then a school, where he sees children safely crossing the street under the supervision of a crossing guard. In the next shot, the father arrives at a local vaccination clinic and says, “Let’s do this.”
The campaign was first launched in communities in Arkansas in November 2021 but has proven so successful that it has appeared in areas of Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Montana, Maryland, Wisconsin, Idaho, West Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina, Alaska, Michigan, Wyoming, Illinois, Tennessee, Utah, and Kentucky.
In the three months after the release of the PSA campaign, Pulaski County, which contains Little Rock, Arkansas’s capital and largest city, saw an increase of 9% over similar markets in neighboring Mississippi without access to the PSA campaign. In fact, the areas without access to the campaign saw a drop in vaccination rates among the unvaccinated population during the same time period.
“When you look at the success of this campaign, I believe it comes down to the representation of core human desires and needs, which are universal and apolitical, such as respect, health, and safety,” concludes Ted Huffman. ”We hope the word will continue to spread and encourage even more people to consider vaccination.”
Looking ahead, the goals of The GreenShoots Foundation include shelter for the homeless, U.S. military veteran advocacy, and increased participation in the exercise of self-government. View the video, titled “Life. Your Journey. Your Choice” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXnZMKqLkfk
For more information about the GreenShoots Foundation, visit thegreenshootsfoundation.org.
