Community gathers to honor Bradenton’s healthcare workers on Labor Day

This Labor Day, community members gathered to say a great big “thank you” to the Bradenton area’s hardworking healthcare workers.

Noting the incredible strain that the COVID-19 pandemic is placing on medical providers and hospital staff, sign-wavers young and old stood at the corner of First Street and Manatee Avenue in front of Manatee Memorial Hospital with words of appreciation. A similar event was held earlier Monday outside of Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

“We understand that they’re really putting their emotional and physical welfare on the line to keep our community safe,” said Dr. Coleman Pratt, a Bradenton family doctor who helped organize the events. “Today we all have Labor Day off, but they’re all in the hospital working. We just wanted to say thank you.”

“The healthcare system has picked us all up on its back and carried us,” said Manatee County School Board Vice-Chair James Golden, who took part in the event. Golden, a reverend, said COVID-19 has affected members of his church congregation and his own family. Golden commended medical staff for soldiering on even as many people refuse to get vaccinated.

“Even in the face of that ambivalence, the healthcare workers still put their all in all into keeping us safe,” Golden said.

Several at the event shared their frustration with people who turn down the opportunity to get vaccinated and then wind up in the hospital with COVID-19, where they occupy precious hospital beds.

“It’s not political. It’s medical,” said Bradenton resident Mary Conway of getting vaccinated. Numerous studies around the globe have found that the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and prevent loss of life from COVID-19.

Candace Carlucci noted that it creates danger for everyone when hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Carlucci, who has several family members in the medical field, worries that healthcare workers are facing burnout and hospitals risk losing experienced staff.

“They’re really tired,” Carlucci said of the medical workers she knows, including a daughter-in-law who works as a nurse anesthetist at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. “And I have a bad feeling this isn’t close to over yet.”

In the meantime, Carlucci encouraged people who have held out on getting the vaccine to reconsider.

“There are people in these hospital beds that are wishing with their last breaths that they had been vaccinated,” Carlucci added.

Participants in Monday’s demonstration said the event was one small way to show their appreciation for healthcare workers, and they encouraged others to find ways to do the same.

“These people are literally signing up for double shifts and double duty and missing holidays because the need is so great,” Pratt said.

It’s time to thank the people who do all of this for us,” said John Raush, 66, whose homemade sign read: “HONK 4 HEALTH CARE WORKERS.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 5:34 PM.