FRANKLIN
Celia Sadler, a pharmacy technician at Farm Fresh No. 6280 in Franklin, has received the National Immunization Champion Award from the American Pharmacists health Association. She traveled from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco accept her award during the ceremony on Sunday evening.

“Celia is a committed patient advocate in the FF banner,” Pharmacy District Manager Ray Hernandez wrote in a press release. “She is well known by community members in the rural Virginia area that she serves as a health care resource and trusted friend. In her role, she encourages patients to stay up to date on vaccines whenever appropriate.”

He continued, “A champion for immunizations, she is instrumental in reaching out to community groups who need assistance providing flu shots to the people they serve.”

Last year, Sadler organized three flu clinics for such community groups. She has also expanded the types of vaccinations that her pharmacy offers at these off-site clinics. Sadler coordinated three Zostavax (shingles) clinics at a local senior residential facility. Without her intervention, assisting patients individually and coordinating immunization clinics, many who received vaccines last year would have otherwise gone without.

Sadler said during a conversation that the Farm Fresh also offers immunizations for Tdap, gardasil, hepatitis, flu and pneumonia.

The American Pharmacists Association established these special awards in 2008 to recognize the value and extraordinary contributions pharmacists provide to improve the vaccination rates in their communities.

Celia is SUPERVALU’s first APhA National Award Winner.

She has been at the local Farm Fresh since 2009, having come over from the crew at the former Parker Drug Company in downtown Franklin.

The Boykins native is the wife of Lundy Sadler. Her parents are mother and stepfather, Trudy Gunn and Ronnie Smith of Boykins, and father and stepmother Marvin Gunn Jr. and Dawn Gunn of Courtland.