You can win up to $10,000 in new MS Gulf Coast COVID vaccine incentive program
The Mississippi Gulf Coast’s business community takes COVID-19 seriously, industry leaders say, so they’re shelling out major reward dollars to encourage the stubbornly vaccine-hesitant community members into getting their shots.
A newly- announced incentive program, 2 Shots 1 Coast, will reward five Hancock, Harrison and Jackson County winners $2,500 each week starting Oct. 27, with a grand prize drawing of five $10,000 winners during Thanksgiving week.
The grassroots assembly of $100,000 in cash prizes from around 17 non-profit and private South Mississippi businesses and organizations in hopes of getting the Coast’s poor vaccination rates up reflects how industry leaders feel about the health of their communities, said Paige Roberts, the President and CEO of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.
The program is also meant to indicate how critical the tourism dollars are to the Gulf Coast and the entire state at a time when vaccination averages lag behind the rest of the country.
“Not only are we the state with the worst vaccination and death rates related to COVID, but the Coast is behind the state, which never happens. The Coast is always a leading region of the state and in this, we are sorrowfully not leading the way,” Roberts said.
Mississippi vaccination average of 46% trails behind nationwide totals of 57%. Harrison County records 39% of its population as fully vaccinated and and 38% of Jackson County has gotten both shots. Hancock County has the lowest rates, at 31%.
“In addition to the science telling us that the irrefutable weapon to fight this pandemic is a vaccine. It’s also that we desperately wanted and needed to send a message to people outside of the Gulf Coast that we take this seriously, the safety and well-being of our visitors and tourists.”
The $100,000 raised by Scarlet Pearl Casino, Chevron, Mississippi Power and Hancock Whitney, among others, will contribute to the prize money and marketing for the campaign.
“Throughout the worst weeks of the Delta surge, if you had turned on any of the national cable newscasts in the evening, you would have seen stories about what was going on in the state of Mississippi,” said Gulf Coast Business Council President said Ashley Edwards.
“And we thought it was very important to be able to make a statement from the collective business community on the Coast. Number one, that, you know, we do take COVID-19 very seriously ... we want people to know that our businesses take the safety of their workers and their guests very seriously.”
Edwards noted that the Gulf Coast’s gaming and tourism industries were the strongest proponents of the incentive program.
Scarlet Pearl, the nation’s first fully vaccinated casino following their mandate for 900 employees in late August, kicked off donations with a $50,000 contribution, Roberts said. In March, Scarlet Pearl began paying employees $300 to get fully vaccinated. That’s an investment of a quarter-million dollars, CEO LuAnn Pappas told the Sun Herald in September. Scarlet Pearl also gave $15,000 for a promotion to get workers at the City of D’Iberville the vaccine and another $150,000 for a public promotion for the vaccine.
“In July or August is when LuAnn Pappas she said she would commit $50,000,” said Roberts. “And within 36 hours it was in the Gulf Coast Community Foundation bank account that was what really that’s what told us, “OK, we’ve got something here now.’”
Federal contractors Ingalls Shipbuilding and Halter Marine are also sponsors of the incentive. Their workforces are subject to a Dec. 8 deadline for vaccination by federal mandate, a requirement that has caused an uproar, especially among Ingalls’ majority unvaccinated workforce.
“It’s meant to be a fun, a fun way to incentivize around a very serious situation,” Roberts said.
State Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs with the Mississippi State Department of Health is also a program partner.
How it works
All fully or partially vaccinated residents of Hancock, Harrison or Jackson counties that are 12 years or older can win the first drawing of five $2,500 prizes, set to be selected on Oct. 27. Winners will be announced on WLOX-TV, a participating sponsor company, on Oct. 18.
The first drawing already has over 12,000 entries, Roberts said. It’s been open since last Thursday.
“This is an incentive program that might be able to help move the needle on those who are still on the fence or, you know, who are not so anti-vaccine, that it’s not a possibility,” Edwards said. “Judging by the response we’ve had just in the first week, it’s pretty clear, there are a lot of folks very interested in this incentive program.”
Any MS Coast resident who is fully vaccinated by Nov. 19 is also eligible to participate in the final drawing for five $10,000 prizes on Nov. 22. An individual is fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving either a second shot of Moderna or Pfizer, or two weeks after receiving the single J&J shot.
During the weeks prior to drawing number 2 on Nov. 3, drawing number 3 on Nov. 10 and drawing number 4 on Nov. 17, only newly vaccinated residents can register for a prize.
“That was our way to reward people for doing the right thing. weeks, two, three, and four is to incentivize people to get vaccinated,” said Roberts.
Residents can register for the drawing online at https://www.2shots1coast.com/. Those without internet access can call 228-265-7910 between 3-6pm on Mondays and Tuesdays only to register over the phone.
A parent or guardian’s name, email and phone number is required for children registering between 12 and 17.
The schedule for the drawings:
Weekly Drawing #1, October 27, 2021: Drawing #1 is open to all Eligible vaccinated residents of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson Counties who have registered by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, October 26. Five winners will be selected to receive $2,500 each.
Weekly Drawing #2, November 3, 2021: Drawing #2 is open to all Eligible residents who were newly vaccinated on or after October 27 and who have registered by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, November 2. Five winners will be selected to receive $2,500 each.
Weekly Drawing #3, November 10, 2021: Drawing #3 is open to all Eligible residents who were newly vaccinated on or after October 27 and who have registered by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, November 9. Five winners will be selected to receive $2,500 each.
Weekly Drawing #4, November 17, 2021: Drawing #4 is open to all Eligible residents who were newly vaccinated on or after October 27, 2021, and who have registered by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, November 16. Five winners will be selected to receive $2,500 each.
The final Grand Prize Drawing will be held on November 22, 2021. Five Grand Prize winners will be selected. Only those eligible entrants who are fully vaccinated and have registered by 11:59 p.m. Friday, November 19 will be eligible to win. Five winners will be selected to receive $10,000 each.
A Gulfport accounting firm, Alexander Van Loon Sloan Levens & Favre, will certify the results pro-bono. 2 Shots 1 Coast is also using Mad Genius, the advertising company that facilitates WLOX’s lotteries, to chose winners. Dr. Dobbs will call each winner to verify vaccination information.
“A lot of people want to believe that it’s not real, but there will be five real winners every week. And you know, we’re certifying that and, you know, there’s a verification process and actually, the first call anybody will get is from Dr. Dobbs,” Roberts said.
Additionally, any employee, officer or director, or any immediate family members of the following participating sponsors is also not eligible to win:
Gulf Coast Business Council
Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce
Hancock County Chamber of Commerce
Jackson County Chamber of Commerce
Alexander, Van Loon, Sloan, Levens & Favre PLLC
WLOX-TV
Mad Genius
Short Stack
Mississippi Department of Health
Any city, county, or state elected official from Hancock, Harrison, or Jackson Counties.
Any executive officer of any organization contributing to this program.
Businesses taking the lead on a solution
Ingalls, Hancock Whitney and Chevron are some Coastal Mississippi businesses that have attempted to incentivize their workforce internally already, holding company-wide raffles and paid vacation days for employees who have received shots.
Another incentive program was held in Biloxi during August by Open Arms Healthcare Center, a Jackson-based nonprofit. Those who received their first shots also got a $50 Visa gift card, according to Deja Abdul-Haqq, director of the office of organizational development for My Brother’s Keeper. Once they get their second shot, another $50 was uploaded to their gift card, she said.
But Roberts said 2 Shots 1 Coast is the largest grassroots incentive program she’s aware of across the country. Other states, like Arkansas, Missouri and Maryland have held vaccination raffles with state or federal CARES act money, but Roberts said the Govenor’s office was not among those who donated to the Gulf Coast vaccination effort.
“We’re the only real grassroots one that we’ve heard of, not just in the state but anywhere ... it’s very clear in the guidelines from the Department of US Treasury that states can use some of the Cares Act money,” Roberts said.
“The states that are doing any sort of financial incentives or monetary incentives are the ones who use their dollars their government dollars for it ... I did speak to the governor directly about it. And while he said he would think about it, we gave up that possibility for a partnership and just did it ourselves.”
Ahead of the delta surge this summer, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was leading the country in economic bounce back from the pandemic, Edwards said.
“We found ourselves in first place among many of our competitors. And that’s not a position we find ourselves in often. So it was striking to see just how well we were doing going into that delta surge,” he said. “The recovery we actually saw was even greater than what we expected.”
He thinks the Coast’s deeply Southern geography and drive-in market and lax COVID restrictions increase economic activity. The region remained steady through the delta surge, he said.
“Ironically, we actually did pretty well through the Delta surge as well. It didn’t slow things down to the extent that we thought it would. But having said that, it certainly still did slow things down,” Edwards said.
The real economic struggle across the MS Gulf Coast is workforce shortages, Edwards said, which could have gotten steeper because of COVID. The business leader hopes workforce vaccination will heighten with the incentive program.
“We hope that that’s a place that we can start to make up this gap,” Edwards said. “We should ensure that we’ve got a healthy workforce who is not absent and are not able to work because of either direct COVID infection or continuing troubles as a result of COVID.”
This project is supported by Journalism and Public Information Fund, a Fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
