Community Corner
COVID-19 Memorial In St. Pete Helps Loved Ones Mourn
The more than 30,000 ribbons outside the Morean Center for Clay represent a life lost in Florida to COVID-19.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A COVID-19 memorial is on view outside the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg.
More than 30,000 ribbons are lined and hung on the black pickets and brick columns of the art center's fence that runs parallel with 22nd Street South. Every ribbon represents Floridians lost to COVID-19.
The creator of the COVID-19 Ribbon Memorial, Kathy Tobias, started tying ribbons together and hanging them up on her porch and front yard in November 2020. "I think about them (the lives lost) each time I tie a ribbon on," Tobias said on Facebook.
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Tobias wanted to help others deal with the pain of losing someone they care about to coronavirus. She, too, lost a loved one.
"I’ve experienced a loss," she told Fox News 13. "I lost my first baby. I know the pain. So, when I see it in these kinds of numbers. I just know these people, their family and friends are just really grieving."
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People write the names of their loved ones lost to the pandemic on one of the ribbons. On March 19, a mother and son from St. Petersburg stopped by the memorial to write the name of the son's father who they lost to COVID on July 25, according to the memorial's Facebook. A couple visiting the city from Missouri also stopped by the memorial on Monday and added the name of a loved one they lost.
Mayor Rick Kriseman and other guests attended the "We Remember Them Memorial," at Morean Center for Clay, and remembered the lives lost to the pandemic. The ribbon string is about 900 feet long, and as COVID-related deaths increase in the state, so does the length of ribbons.
The memorial will be on display until the end of March. There has been no mention of where its next destination in Florida will be. Its first display was in Anna Maria Island on the beach for the month of February.
To follow the COVID-19 Ribbon Memorial, visit its Facebook page. If you would like to pay tribute to a loved one by adding their name to a ribbon, you can visit the memorial, 420 22nd Street South, St. Pete.
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