SERVE A PURPOSE
US Open honors COVID heroes with ball kid tribute uniforms
Front-line workers will be feeling the “love” at the US Open this year.
When the ball persons hit the US Open courts on Monday, they’ll be sporting a tribute to the Big Apple’s medical first responders who fought the COVID-19 pandemic as it ravaged the city in the spring.
Their uniforms will be emblazoned with the last name of a worker from Mount Sinai’s various facilities, which chose 150 employees to spotlight, spanning a range of essential duties from patient transporter to emergency room physician.
“It’s a huge honor,” Rocky Walker, a 55year-old hospital chaplain, told The Post. “I used to play football. I was a soldier for 25 years. I am used to seeing my name on a shirt, but this is special.”
The sartorial tribute is the brainchild of Ralph Lauren, which has been the tournament’s official outfitter since 2005.
Originally, the fashion house designed a colorful uniform for this year’s Open but changed course.
“It didn’t feel like it was the right move or the right spirit, so we decided to hold those until next year,” David Lauren, the son of designer Ralph Lauren and the company’s chief innovation officer told The Post. Instead, they dug into existing stock and used gray fabric to craft a more somber shirt, which allows the first responders’ surnames to shine — a humanizing touch for an event that has been stripped of in-person spectators due to the pandemic.
“This isn’t a fun fashion moment,” said Lauren. “It’s about a story.”
And every one of the honored workers has their own harrowing tale.
Sandra Lazo, a patient transporter at Mount Sinai West, was nominated by her boss after working seven days a week, even putting in hours in the overwhelmed morgue during the peak of infections.
“You see the doctors and nurses and there is such a big group of people behind them, who I feel don’t always get recognized,” said Lazo, 34. “We have housekeepers, respiratory therapists, security guards and people who work in the kitchen. I was superexcited they are putting us out there.”
While she was logging long hours, her parents and two siblings were fighting the virus, and her mother landed in the hospital but has recovered. “It was so frightening. I could only go drop off groceries,” Lazo recalled. “I couldn’t even see them.”
Sports doctor Joseph Herrera normally works with Olympic athletes, NBA players and weekend warriors. But when the coronavirus struck, he transformed his rehabilitation facilities to medical floors so he could treat critically ill patients.
“Everyone was scared,” Herrera, 47, said. “My team and I were the first ones to see the patients. I was doing chest compressions, and adjusting oxygen levels. It was nonstop.”
Herrera is adjusting to the “new normal” but he’s thrilled that sports— especially tennis — are back.
“Some of my fondest childhood memories were watching Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe play. I don’t think anything can be more NYC and more international than the US Open. When you watch sports and see the back of a jersey, it really means something.”
For Walker, who as a hospital chaplain tended to the emotional needs of others, including patients and staffers who would regularly go from “casual conversation to tears,” there’s only one way to top his excitement about being a part of this year’s event: If he could see his name on a ball person working a match where either Serena or Venus Williams are playing.
“Now you are talking tears,” the Bay Ridge resident said. “Actually, it would be more disbelief . . . It would be amazing.”
But ultimately, he hopes that next year the bold uniforms will return along with spectators — and that the country will have beaten the virus.
“That would be the real victory,” Walker said.