The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Green turning red with thanks
Heart of the city to show gratitude
NEW HAVEN — The huge heart of the city will be on full display Tuesday.
A 30-foot-high heart will be painted on the grass to thank all those who have worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, including those who keep essential businesses and services going and all those who are following the guidance to stay at home, keep their distance and wear masks in public.
“I feel like it’s New Haven strong,” said Geri Mauhs, chairwoman of Friends of the New Haven Green, who suggested the idea to the proprietors after seeing a heart mown into the grass of Bryant Park in Manhattan.
“I think New Haven has really come together,” Mauhs said. “People have volunteered. People have done so much to support each other … even staying home. … It’s something positive and there’s so much doom and gloom right now.”
The Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Lands, the five-member, self-perpetuating group that owns the Green, agreed right away. “The gesture by the proprietors and the Friends of the Green of putting a heart on the Green as a public thank you to all of New Haven’s health-care workers and first responders and essential workers is symbolic because the Green is at the heart of the city and their work is at the heart of getting us through this COVID crisis,” said the group’s chairwoman, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton.
“It was just, if I might use the term, heartfelt, and so appropriate to the times and the place, and we were very pleased to have this happen on the Green,” she said.
Christy Hass, a consultant to the proprietors and former deputy director of the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees, was given the job of turning the idea into reality. She knew the city had a paint sprayer for its athletic fields, but didn’t have any red field paint. The town of Rocky Hill, where she once worked, donated the 10 gallons.
She said the heart will have an outside and inside border of white, outlining red, with a grassy center.
“The red cannot be seen that well if you’re doing it on green grass,” she said. The white and red outline will “pop better,” she said.
“This is to thank all of the New Haven responders: the first responders and all the … essential workers,” she said.
“This is to thank all of the New Haven responders: the first responders and all the … essential workers.”
— Christy Hass