Corning Inc. is a major player in the battle to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, and the New York Army National Guard is manning a state-run regional vaccination center at SUNY Corning Community College.

Now the Corning Museum of Glass is creating a special commemorative coin to honor both of those efforts.

"Challenge coins" have a long tradition in military history and among first responders as a way to honor units involved in special missions.

Sgt. Jason Borghi, of Niagara Falls, who is in charge of the National Guard unit operating the CCC vaccination center, noted that Corning Inc. manufactures the Valor Glass vials used to store and transport much of the COVID-19 vaccine being distributed in the United States.

Borghi thought it was a natural connection and he reached out to the Corning Museum of Glass to see if it would be possible to create a challenge coin out of glass.

The museum readily agreed.

"This is the first vaccination site in the state run by the National Guard. We're super excited. The vials we use here were made in Corning," Borghi said. "The vaccine is what is going to be what gets us out of this. Usually we do patches or some metallic coin. This was a different opportunity. I'm not aware of any other glass coins out there."

To read the complete article, see:
Corning museum creates glass 'challenge coins' to celebrate National Guard vaccine mission(https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2021/04/09/corning-museum-glass-honors-national-guard-covid-19-mission-coins/7121759002/)