The Floral Heart Project started as an art project and soon gained nationwide traction. On March 1, they held a COVID-19 Memorial Day meant to honor those who have lost their lives during the pandemic.
“Some places are doing candle vigils, candlelight vigils,” said Ciara Krantz, lead volunteer. “Other places, similar to ours are having the mayor speak, some mayors are making declarations to make it the national day of mourning in that city, and we also have a couple of people that are doing it on the beach and letting the wreath go out in the water.”
Sault Ste. Marie was the only Michigan city taking part in this day of remembrance. Krantz said displaying the wreath will give the many frontline workers in their area a sense of hope going forward. “I’m hoping that they take away that the fact that we have a lot of frontline workers here,” she said. “War Memorial Hospital is one of the big employers here as well as the prisons and it’s a way for us to say, ‘we see you’.”
Mayor Pro-tem Kathy Twardy takes pride that Sault Ste. Marie was able to take part in this event. “The fact that there are 100 symbols of hope out in the nation, we really kind of need this right now to keep us moving forward,” she said. “We’re getting there. We’re doing very well. We’re getting vaccines into arms but we just need to hold out our hope and we’ll get there very soon so we just need to keep supporting each other.”
The city hopes to move the wreath to city hall, where people can pay their respects.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
