Limestone sculpture honors staff for service ‘In the time of COVID’

Gus Pearcy gus.pearcy@reporter.net

Staff of Hoosier Village Retirement Community in Zionsville were honored with a 10,000 pound limestone sculpture placed in the village at the intersection of Hoosier Village and Cherryleaf drives.

“What a beautiful gift to our staff,” Hoosier Village Executive Director Mindy Kantz said. “To come in every day and be reminded of their hard work and dedication to the campus and the residents.”

Residents of the Hoosier Village Arts Council arranged for the sculpture to be commissioned using Indiana limestone. Bloomington artist Amy Brier co-created the sculpture with John Fisher of California and Sharon Fullingim of New Mexico. It features three stones of healthcare staff and birds of hope and is entitled ‘In the Time of COVID.”

“The one they’re lifting up now is of an exhausted health care worker,” Kantz said as the stones were being placed with the help of a crane last week. “Our staff have not seen the sculpture.”

Hoosier Village suffered COVID deaths during the height of the pandemic. Kantz, who is a registered nurse, said everybody just did what needed to be done.

“They stuck to the mission of providing a safe and secure environment,” she said. “I look back and see some amazing things by the staff. They did what needed to be done, no matter what.”

She added the early days were pretty scary. There was an additional wave of cases last winter. The community specified a COVID unit where residents would go to recover. Some residents passed away.

“We really concentrated on the needs into the health center at that time,” she added. “Quarantining and cutting back on visitations … that was tough.”