St. Cloud Dedicates Monument to Frontline Pandemic Workers

(KNSI) – Central Minnesota dedicated a monument to honor those who were on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jake Judd KNSI News

The Rock-On monument is at Hester Park next to CentraCare’s St. Cloud Hospital. Nurse Amber Martin was one of the medical workers risking their lives every day to care for the community. She told KNSI News it feels good to be recognized. “After so many years of working the way we did, it feels like maybe we weren’t alone the whole time. That maybe people saw it even when we were behind closed doors. It feels nice that the community is recognizing that, and hopefully, some of the people that were affected by COVID, and we actually took care of, can see this as well.”

Jake Judd KNSI News

She says the community support got her and her coworkers through the darkest times. “The outpouring of love from people in the hospital, people in the community, food was constantly being delivered. We were never hungry. I never went without PPE, and we always had what we needed.”

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Klies spoke at the event and said thank you is not enough. “The world was tested by a pandemic. And it’s the health care workers, the frontline workers, who really brought us through this. And you know there’s really not a lot that you can do to really completely pay back those folks.”

The monument was unveiled on Friday, three years to the day after CentraCare launched its COVID Incident Command Unit to deal with the virus. The Rock-On award was announced during the 2021 Granite City Days with a plan to dedicate the monument after the worst of the pandemic had passed.

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