NEW ORLEANS— A homeless New Orleans resident named Christopher had a simple but poignant reason for wanting to get the COVID vaccine today.

“Yeah, because I don’t want to spread the disease,” said Christopher.

A man without much, caring enough about others to not want to infect them.

The welfare of others is how this vaccine event came together from First City Court Clerk Austin Badon and his St.Augustine High buddy Ruston Henry of H & W Drug Store.

Badon said, “It’s a humanitarian effort to be able to vaccinate the people who are living under the bridge, the homeless population in New Orleans, but we’re also offering it to anybody who is just walking up who has not been vaccinated.”

Like the rest of us, Badon says he drives by these folks daily and it was a phone call to Henry that got the ball rolling on getting them shots.

According to Henry, “(Badon) said Russ, we gotta do something about the homeless population that’s unvaccinated.”

And without the help of a a big agency, or outfit, they did just that.

Kenneth Richardson has lived under the bridge for a few years and he certainly appreciated the opportunity, “The vaccine is very important for everybody to get, in order for me not to get sick and to save my life.”

Herbert Simmons, another resident also said, “I wanna feel safe so I won’t catch COVID.”