East Meadow student artists contribute to mural at Mercy Medical Center

Soon after the coronavirus pandemic hit the area in March, residents began dreaming up thoughtful and creative ways to show their support and appreciation for hospital workers on the front lines. Most of it came in the form of food, masks and car parades, but as the crisis wore on, community members sought a more permanent way to say thank you. Rockville Centre resident Beth Hammerman, a former Mercy Medical Center employee, decided that art would be a nice to way to show appreciation, in the form of a tile mural for the hospital employees, which was installed on July 1.

“I wanted to create a lasting memory, something that hopefully would be there forever, so no one would ever forget what the employees went through during this pandemic,” Hammerman said. “They risked their own lives to save others, and that should never be forgotten.”

She envisioned something similar to the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan — something that the public could see, and that would help people remember what happened during the pandemic.

Hammerman, who was Mercy’s director of planning from 1994 until 2014, said she wanted to focus on health care workers because she felt they were the most vulnerable to Covid-19, and chose the hospital because it is part of her community.

“And I worked there for 20 years, so I know a lot of the staff and could feel and understand what they were going through,” she added, “so it made the project more personal to me.”

To make the tiles, she got the community involved. She reached out to friends, local organizations and schools to see if they wanted to participate, and even delivered paper, cut to the correct size, to residents of her neighborhood. Art students in the East Meadow School District also got involved and created some of the pictures that were made into tiles.

Hammerman then worked with ArtWare for Good, based upstate New York in Garrison, to create the tiles.

So many people responded, she said, that she had to put a limit on the number of tiles she accepted, since she was funding the project on her own. She created two 90-tile murals with common centerpieces.

“The murals came out even better than I expected,” Hammerman said. “The messages on each tile really expressed the heartfelt thanks that the community wanted to give to the front-line workers. Residents were so appreciative of these health care heroes, and this project gave them a means to express their gratitude.”

Separately, Hue Studio and the Facebook group Support for Local Businesses and Frontline Workers created a mixed-media canvas rainbow mural, also with community support.

Michelle James Wettstein, the founder of the Facebook group, which worked for months to provide food to front-line workers while supporting local businesses, helped fund the project. A second rainbow mural created by Hue Studio and funded by the Facebook group will be hung in Village Hall. Wettstein said it would serve as a “reminder of how much the community appreciates its front-line workers.”

All three murals were installed on July 1 in the hospital’s employee cafeteria, to serve as a morale booster for staff members and a reminder of all they have been through.