By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — For most it is a strange sight to see. Literally hundreds of children, lined up down the block from an elementary school hoping to get a shot.
That was the unlikely scene at Washington School in Plymouth last night as The Marshall County Health Department held its first H1N1 flu shot clinic. In spite of the large numbers that turned out and the trickle of vaccine into the county, the department didn’t have to turn anyone away. Everyone who came received an inoculation.

“They started lining up well before hand which is typical of the other clinics I heard about,” said Wes Burden of the line of people waiting outside the school for their chance at a shot. “We ended up with a little more than 1,000 doses. It’s still guesswork, as to when and how much is coming in. Hopefully it keeps coming in like this and we can keep going around the county to the different schools and setting up clinics.”
Dustin Huff, his wife and three children arrived at about 4:30 p.m. for the clinic that started at 5 p.m. They were at the front of the line an hour and fifteen minutes later but still waiting patiently.
One reason many were in attendance was the attention that the H1N1 virus has received in the media.
“That’s one reason my wife wanted to come,” said Huff. “We wanted to make sure our kids got vaccinated.”
One little girl knew exactly why she was there.
“I’m here to get my H1N1 flu shot because my mom is all worried,” said elementary school student Scarlet Gibson. “She said, ‘If you don’t get it you might die,’ My aunt even called and said ‘you know you have to get your shot.’”
Scarlet said it made her feel very good that her mother was watching out for her. So was she looking forward to the shot?
“No.”
While the crowd was large and police and fire personnel were on hand to handle any difficulty, there were no incidents.
“The line is the same size now as when we started – but it never seems to run out,” said Plymouth Fireman Greg Carroll Jr. on hand to help out. “Everything is nice and smooth. The people were all great moving through.”
Marshall County Sheriff John VanVactor – on hand with some of his personnel – was also impressed with the calm reaction of the large crowd that had to spend so much time in the cold waiting in line.
“It’s been very smooth and a lot of that credit goes to Wes (Burden, Chief Ad-ministrator at the MCHD) and (Marshall County Emer-gency Management Direc-tor) Clyde (Avery),” said VanVactor. “They had a great plan and it’s moving like clockwork.”