'Health Care Heroes' Tribute Moves Medical Staff To Tears

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — In Wisconsin, there are two main groups that officials say are among the most vulnerable in the coronavirus public health emergency: the elderly, who are dying at a higher rate when compared with their younger peers, and health care workers, who face potential COVID-19 exposure every time someone walks in the door or drives up for a test.

Across Wisconsin, people are beginning to see hear the stories that are posted on Facebook, or shared at the dinner table, or over a FaceTime or Zoom call: healthcare workers are tending to the sick and dying, while gravely concerned that one day soon they be among the same population they're treating.

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In Racine, a local nurse decided to recognize the risks these workers face. People from around the area got in their cars and poured into the Ascension All Saints Hospital parking lot Friday night.

It was in response to a medical emergency - but not their own. The hospital, which employs hundreds of workers who face the daily risk of contracting the new coronavirus, hosted an appreciation event social-distancing style.

It was called a Flasin' First Friday. Drivers filed into the Ascension All Saints parking lot, flashing their headlights in the early twilight hours Friday evening. A sign in front of the hospital, stuck into the muddy Earth one letter at a time spelled out in block letters what many people feel during this trying time: "Heroes Work Here."

Nurses, clinical assistants, emergency room workers and staff, donning masks and personal protective gear, stood in a line in front of the hospital's emergency room waving, and offering heartfelt thanks for the appreciation.

According to a Journal Times report, Ascension All Saints President Kristin McManmon said the nurses and staff inside were "crying with joy." Outside, nurse Melissa Palacios, the person who organized the event, said she was in awe of the public response.

The impact was immense. According to Racine Police, they staffed the parking lot thinking that 50 cars would show. Instead, more than 1,000 cars arrived - filled with people eager to show their appreciation for their masked and scrubbed health care heroes.

Racine's event was not the only outpouring of support from Ascension staff. At an Elmbrook mobile testing site, nurses and emergency staff smiled as they posed outside their makeshift tent set up in the hospital parking lot.

At the Tomahawk, Wisconsin drive-through testing site, two nurses, donned in protective masks, gloves and gowns, made the shape of a heart as they posed for a photograph.

Supply chain team members in the Ascension All Saints Hospital posed for a photo holding a sign, reading "we will get through this. We have hope!"

The Ascension St. Joseph's Intensive Care team made signs reading "we can do it together" and "play your part and stay home" as they wore protective masks and gloves.

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