Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine ready to be administered during a vaccination clinic for children at St. Charles Bend on Saturday. More than 250 children were vaccinated. A second-dose clinic will be held Dec. 11.

After getting her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 10-year-old Sophie McConnell wanted to stay at the Bend clinic where she got it to encourage other children to get the shot.

McConnell was one of 258 children, ages 5 to 11, to receive a vaccine Saturday at a clinic hosted by St. Charles Bend.

“I was feeling very nervous,” McConnell, a fifth grader at Pine Ridge Elementary School, said at the clinic, held in the hospital’s Family Care building on Neff Road. “I knew a lot of kids would probably feel that way too. I just wanted to encourage them and tell them all the good things that can happen in their life if they get their shots.”

McConnell arrived at the clinic Saturday with her parents, Michael and Lynne McConnell. The couple said they were relieved to finally have their daughter protected from the virus.

“It just feels like a huge weight is lifted just to be able to get her in here and start thinking about a normal future,” Lynne McConnell said.

Even though she was nervous at first, Sophie McConnell said the shot wasn’t a big deal and she could hardly feel the needle in her arm.

“It just felt like barely a poke,” she said. “I couldn’t even feel it hardly go in.”

The poke was well worth it for the young girl. She is already excited about attending the Deschutes County Fair next summer without having to worry as much about the virus, and travel more with her family.

“I knew that if I got it everything could go back to normal for me,” McConnell said.

Vaccines for children, 5 to 11, became available in Oregon earlier this month.

The vaccinations Saturday were free, and families made appointments for their children online.

A second-dose clinic will be held for the same 258 children on Dec. 11.

St. Charles Bend is not yet planning another free clinic, but hospital officials said families should check with other providers in the area.

A list of vaccination options for children is available on the Bend-La Pine Schools website.

Kevin Callon, the administrative director of urgent care at St. Charles Bend, brought his 10-year-old daughter, Madison, to the vaccination clinic Saturday.

Madison’s shot marked the end of a stressful year for the family. Callon has kept his daughter away from high-risk family members, out of indoor sports and home rather than taking trips.

The precautions also meant skipping the family’s annual trip to Portland to watch “Disney on Ice.”

But now with the vaccine, Callon’s family feels they can start planning more trips.

“The hope is that life can start turning back to normal and we can start doing activities,” Callon said. “Things have changed.”