Members of the award-winning Yarmouth Community Coronavirus Task Force, from left, Dale Shields, Gib Parrish, Sharon McDonnell and Carla Hunt, with Rep. Art Bell, D-Yarmouth, who nominated the group for the award. Contributed / Yarmouth Community Coronavirus Task Force

The Yarmouth Community Coronavirus Task Force is the winner of this year’s Public Health Program of Excellence Award from the Maine Public Health Association.

Since March 2020, the task force has hosted drive-thru COVID-19 testing at Yarmouth Public Works and provided information on testing and vaccinations to community members via its website at bewellyarmouth.org.

From August 2021 until this past February the task force also collected and tested wastewater samples to track the course of the coronavirus in collaboration with the Yarmouth Wastewater Treatment Facility and Saint  Joseph’s College in Standish. Yarmouth and Portland were the first municipalities in the state to test wastewater to detect whether cases were increasing or decreasing. The task force is now transitioning to a wastewater testing program funded by U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

“It’s a great honor and a real tribute to the many people in Yarmouth who volunteered to make all the activities that we’ve been involved in possible,” said Margaret Downing, one of four founding members of the 100-member task force.

As of May 8, Yarmouth has had 1,303 positive cases of the 40,644 confirmed cases of the coronavirus recorded as of May 20 in Cumberland County and 186,350 statewide since March 23, 2020. There have been 367 deaths in Cumberland County and 2,338 in the state.

The task force, which was honored May 24, was nominated for the award by Arthur “Art” Bell, D-Yarmouth, who lives on Cousins Island.

In Bell’s submission to the MPHA, he said, in part, “If one were to ask this group why they formed, it is probable their answer would be:  ‘If we didn’t react and respond, who would?’ The close-knit community had plenty of ambition, insight, skill, training, and resources to meet the needs for their immediate friends and neighbors. … They are a blessing in our community for the many ways they have helped us get through these past two years.”

The task force was honored for its “leadership, collaboration, and volunteer efforts to serve the needs of the Yarmouth community during the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Rebecca Boulos, executive director of the MPHA.

The aim of the Public Health Program of Excellence Award is to “increase the visibility of public health initiatives in Maine, promote adoption of effective public health programs, and provide recognition to organizations involved in successful, collaborative public health initiatives,” according to Boulos.