See It: Hometown Heroes Parade Hits NYC

NEW YORK CITY — Ticker tape fell across the Canyon of Heroes for the everyday New Yorkers who pulled the city through the coronavirus crisis.

The Hometown Heroes Parade set off from Battery Park on a sunny Wednesday morning, its 14 floats — each honoring a category of essential worker — making it one of the biggest ticker tape events in the city's history, officials said.

The last parade along the Canyon of Heroes honored the U.S. women’s soccer team for their 2019 World Cup win

Update 11:54 a.m.

A float honoring hospital and health care workers led the parade.

Indeed, the parade's Grand Marshal Sandra Lindsay is a nurse who was the first person in America to receive the vaccine.

In her 20 years of working in healthcare, parade-goer Dr. Laura Iavicoli has never seen anything similar to COVID-19—she likened the experience to working in "combat." She described the severity of the emergency: rows of hospital beds lining hallways, the poor states people arrived at the hospitals in and the extended duration of their stays due to their declining health.

Iavicoli worked in the throes of the pandemic as the senior assistant vice president of emergency management at New York City Health and Hospitals.

What got Iaviocoli through the enormous pressure and struggle of an unprecedented situation?
"My colleagues," said Iaviocoli, adding that people in every department seemed to step up to the plate and support one another. "We learned about resilience."

With a huge grin, Iaviocoli looked around the parade as red, white and blue confetti sprinkled throughout the skies. "It's so nice," she said.

Update 12:08 p.m.

Health care workers in floats and on foot from NYC Health + Hospitals, Columbia, Sinai and other hospital systems ambled down Broadway.

Their feet strode over red, white and blue confetti covering Broadway as first responders followed them.

Another special guest snaked down the Canyon of Heroes.

The city's Vaccine Bus took a break from going neighborhood-to-neighborhood to make an all-star appearance along the parade route.

Update 12:12 p.m.

“We’ve got a lot to appreciate, because we’re well underway in our recovery. We’ve got a lot to celebrate and we’ve got a lot of people to celebrate,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who rode during the parade on a float with hospital employees and Mr. Met, the mascot of the New York Mets, the Associated Press reported.

“They deserve a march down the Canyon of Heroes, because it’s something that is reserved for the greatest folks in history. Well, here are some of the folks who made history in New York City’s toughest hour,” he said.

Some of those folks include Department of Sanitation employees who picked up massive amounts of overtime during the pandemic. One Department of Sanitation employee who stood on the sidelines—waiting to help clean up after the celebration—said it was simply "too much overtime," working around the clock.

Update 12:46 p.m.

Update 2:00 p.m.

Ardist Brown is a concierge at a luxury condo in the Upper West Side. But Brown, along with his wife, was one of the many New Yorkers who caught the virus.

"It's easier to talk about now, than it was back then," said Brown. "During the pandemic, every day was dark to me. Every day was gloomy. Every day was scary. Early into the pandemic in March, me and my wife came down with COVID at the same time. We were both home and nursing each other for three weeks. When I returned back to work, it was scary, but I knew I had a special obligation to the people in my workplace."

Brown adjusted his services to meet the needs of quarantined people in the residence, like going door-to-door and checking in with dozens of tenants. After finding out how many people were going hungry, Brown assisted many of the elderly tenants with ordering food.

"I basically started a food bank," said Brown. "I knew I had a responsibility that came with my job to be of service to the people who lived there. Although their needs had changed—people weren't able to get out—I had to adjust. But it just seemed like the right thing to do."

As for the parade, Brown had nothing but gratitude to share.

"The parade was awesome; I'm still in awe at the love, the energy and the support of all the New Yorkers who came out, who stood out there in the hot weather to show their thanks and to show their love to all the essential workers and frontline workers. It was amazing."