By Michael Daniels
Journal Staff Writer
It was early in 2020 when the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the United States. After that, this mysterious virus engulfed the country at a rapid speed and many people died. Even today in 2022 as we continue to wrestle with COVID-19, people are still dying. At this point, almost everybody knows someone or several people who have died from COVID-19. Add to this to the recent uptick of deaths due to gun violence in our streets, homes, schools, and elsewhere, and we find ourselves to be a nation in mourning the loss of our loved ones.
Today we are forced to face a grim reality, and that reality is that senseless death is all around us and the world is out of control. To help heal the pain of people mourning and remember their lost loved ones.
According Katherin Greely, a sponsor, The Community Reinvestment Coalition Inglewood SW collaborated, with the New York Juneteenth Organization, she is a broad member, to join ‘The Quilt Project’.
Diane Gordon, Healing Our Community Workshop Program Organizer, said, “What we are doing is trying to heal the pain today by letting us not forget the people who have gone on. Today we will ask our quests to put their loved ones’ names on a card, and we will add their name to our local quilt, which will be shipped to New York, to become a part of a national quilt that will include Toledo, New York, and Detroit. This quilt will be on display in New York City and available to be viewed virtually nationwide. Here in Toledo, we’ve lost quite a few people to COVID-19 in our community, plus all the shootings that have taken place lately. Cancer, COVID, and drive-by shootings have left us really needing to heal. We hope we can do that today,” she said.
During the program, Prayer Leader, Elsie Harbour led the group in an opening and closing prayer. Alice Grace who is an artist and quilter explained the history of quilts that started in slavery and how quilts often tell a story.
Closing the program was Beatrice Daniels: MLS, LSWA, Trauma-Grief Specialist, and a First Responder Chaplin. She was on hand to assist any of the audience, who need help, talking about and remembering their loved ones, who passed away during COVID.
Sponsors for the program included Katherin Greely, of the Community Reinvestment Coalition Inglewood SW , Kimberly Toles: Program Director of The Lucas County Toledo Office of Minority Health, U.S. Coalition of Black Women Business, and The Frederick Douglass Community Center.
If you missed the program, and you still want to be involved in ‘The Quilt Project’, you can contact Diane Gordon through The Frederick Douglass Community Center.
