New mural honors health care workers at Central DuPage Hospital
A new mural unveiled at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital has layers of meaning.
It's dedicated to "health care heroes" who've endured surge after surge of COVID-19 patients.
And it's inspired by their strength over two grueling years of the pandemic. One of the four mural panels depicts four hospital workers in masks and scrubs, flexing their arms like Rosie the Riveter.
Stacy Lazzara, a chalk and paint muralist from South Elgin, designed the 16-foot-wide piece with imagery from photos and thank-you cards sent to employees at the Winfield hospital.
The mural itself is a product of their team effort.
Over the last three weeks, hospital personnel painted individual areas of the mural in the style of a paint-by-numbers project.
The mural declares "heroes work here," but it also shows their humanity and what sustains them. Coffee and pizza are painted along the bottom of the mural. In the upper corner, a woman administers the vaccine to one of her colleagues.
Their finished work now brings color - and meaning - to beige hospital walls in the Central DuPage inpatient pavilion.