By Linda Kor As the world struggles to adapt in the midst of a pandemic, remote areas such as the Navajo Reservation are in need of more assistance than others. On the Navajo Nation, residents and hospitals rely on people like United Parcel Service driver, Cody Rodriguez who has been the Holbrook driver for nearly 14 years. Rodriguez has been delivering down dirt roads, on top of mountains and to addresses that don’t exist on a map for several years. Teachers and health care workers also rely heavily on Rodriguez to provide them with everyday living essentials as they stayed out of the public unless absolutely essential to ensure that they remain healthy enough to serve others. “The address on the box will say eight miles north and three miles south of two main roads, for example,” says Rodriguez. “There’s nothing around them for hundreds of miles. They live off-grid, in the middle of nowhere.” Rural UPS drivers are critical to the well-being of the communities they serve. This includes delivering Sterling sub-zero freezers that store COVID vaccines that can save lives, which took place earlier this year. The Navajo Nation has been working hard to overcome unique challenges and high numbers of COVID in their communities, and they’ve been succeeding. Now with the proper transport for vaccines, it can ensure everyone on the reservation is fully vaccinated. A Sterling sub-zero freezer is cold enough to keep the Pfizer vaccine viable and small enough to travel in the passenger seat of a car and simply plugging into the cigarette lighter. “It’s a valuable tool in the battle to get everyone vaccinated,” says Craig Arnold, Vice President, UPS Health Care. “They can now bring the vaccine to those unable to travel.” The freezer, one of two delivered to the Pinion and Tsaile Health Centers on the Navajo Nation, is a donation from the UPS Foundation in partnership with UPS Healthcare as they strive to facilitate delivery and access to vaccines. According to Rodriguez, “Delivering these freezers can be essential for a lot of people out there, especially the elderly that can’t leave their homes or their family does all their shopping and stuff for them. And there’s a lot of them that just live in the middle of nowhere.” Rodriguez notes that it’s not uncommon to find three or four generations living in very close proximity to each other. “You’ll have great-grand parents living with little kids that are going to school, or interacting with their friends. So it just spreads through their whole families just so fast.” With the wide-open spaces and long distances between homes and hospitals, easing the concerns and providing hope in difficult times is important to people like Rodriguez whose job of delivering packages is more important than ever.
