
Mecca Bingo Enlists for Jabs Army
The Rank Group has declared its support for The Sun newspaper’s ‘Jab’s Army’ – an initiative launched on New Year’s Day with the goal of recruiting 50,000 volunteers for UK vaccination centres.
To assist in the effort, the Mecca Bingo owners have asked staff to sign up while offering the use of its fifty car parks at vaccination sites.
Enlistees are required to work a six-hour shift and perform a variety of duties. These include providing directions and helping elderly people to fill out their forms.
The move was declared a ‘brilliant collaboration with The Sun’ by CEO John Reilly, who also suggesting that Mecca’s venues offered a ‘familiarity that lend themselves ideally to being used for the vaccine roll-out’.
Who else is getting involved?
Mecca isn’t the only company to offer its support. BT, Sky, British Airways and John Lewis have also pledged their services. So too has NatWest, which urged staff to register as stewards. CEO Alison Rose suggested that the goal of vaccinating some 15 million people by March was ‘vital not just for our health, but for our economy and quality of life’.
As testament to the extensive media coverage surrounding The Sun’s campaign, both Katie Price and ex-hubby Peter Andre have announced their participation.
So far over a 1000 shifts have been arranged as part of the initiative. Meanwhile, more than 4 million vaccines have been administered in the UK with the NHS targeting 15 million by March. Said Prime Minister Boris Johnson:
‘…a monumental national effort such as this requires each one of us to do what we can to help. The Sun’s Jabs Army campaign is a brilliant example of the power of collective action’.