Why people are shouting in the streets for Charlotte’s healthcare workers every Friday
Every Friday at 7 p.m., Jennifer Terry’s 8- and 11-year-old kids get to walk up to the shore of Lake Norman and see how far the sound of banging pots and pans carries.
Terry, the vice president of Levine Children’s Medical Group, knows what healthcare workers face in the coronavirus pandemic. Her kids are among many in Charlotte and throughout the country making some noise to help nurses and doctors feel appreciated in such trying times.
“Touching and amazing,” said Terry, who likens this recent weekly ritual around Charlotte to shouting on runners during a marathon. “It gives you so much energy. Makes you feel like you can conquer the world.
“Our healthcare workers are anxious and nervous. They are worried about their patients, worried about their colleagues, worried about their families ... (This) gives you the energy to keep going. It’s encouraging to feel loved.”
Charlotte’s Triple-A baseball team, the Knights, joined in Friday, announcing they would play “Sweet Caroline” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” over their stadium loudspeakers and exterior billboard at 7 p.m.
While social-distancing precludes groups assembling at BB&T Park uptown, the Knights are asking people to come out of their homes at 7 to sing along as a show of solidarity for healthcare workers. Several Charlotte radio stations, including FM 106.5 (“The End”), will play the same songs the Knights are at 7 each Friday.
Healthcare workers are under massive stress in the face of the pandemic, often working longer hours in unprecedented conditions trying to avoid contracting the disease. More than 5,000 healthcare workers have been infected nationally, according to a Buzzfeed study published Thursday.
The Carolina Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium was among more than 150 venues around the country lit up in blue Thursday night, in support of workers on the front line.
“The hours that they’re working and all the additional (precautions) — they have to gown-up, they have a mask, they must make sure they are following every little (procedure) to a T,” Terry described. “That creates another level of emotional exhaustion.”
Chaplain David Carl, who has worked in Charlotte hospitals more than 30 years, said healthcare workers aren’t used to being acclaimed for their work, but the praise they now receive is important to morale.
“Maybe it’s just a little bit awkward for them,” said Carl of the applause healthcare workers now hear. “Nobody in healthcare thinks of themselves as heroes. But it’s my experience that’s what heroes say — that they’re not.”
Carl said there’s no doubt healthcare workers notice the appreciation and draw strength from it.
“There has been a real shift in large communities to recognize just how brave these people are,” Carl said, “to put themselves at the front line of a real battle, where the enemy is coronavirus.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 4:57 PM.
