Wyckoff Children's Retreat To Host COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic

WYCKOFF, NJ — Eastern Christian Children's Retreat will host a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at their main campus in Wyckoff Jan. 22, organization officials announced.

According to fundraising assistant Marlene Griffin, ECCR provides residential services for 95 people across their 14 group homes in Bergen and Passaic County. Additionally, ECCR employs 300 staffers.

Registration for the vaccine is still open for those staffers and residents, Griffin said.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, ECCR staff have navigated new health and safety protocols.

According to Griffin, those protocols include:

• Temperature taken upon entry into Bushman Building
• Required masks
• Staffers working closely with residents must wear face shields
• Quarantine based on suspected exposure
• No visitors or volunteers allowed entry

These protocols and the pandemic itself, have shifted the day-to-day of residents and staffers at the facility.

In an October video, CEO Daryl Rogers called 2020 a year of "trying times", adding that the coronavirus challenged the organization "in ways we've never been challenged before."

Now, the retreat may be rounding the corner into 2021, and, perhaps, moving past the pandemic.

According to the ECCR website, the Children's Retreat, a non-profit, was created in 1972.

The organization serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to the site, with a goal "to make sure all of our residents have a meaningful life."