Photo Provided Jerry Moore Jr., president of the Belmont County NAACP, is organizing a candlelight vigil in May for people who died after contracting COVID-19.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County’s chapter of the NAACP is holding a vigil at 6 p.m. May 14 at the St. Clairsville Recreation Center for people to remember loved ones who died after contracting COVID-19.

“We’re just asking people to show up at 6 p.m.,” chapter President Jerry Moore Jr. said.

This COVID vigil is part of community outreach for those impacted by the pandemic

“It’s basically something God has laid on my heart to do for the community of Belmont County,” he said. “We’re trying to bring Belmont County together in unison, because everyone in Belmont County knows at least someone who has been affected in their immediate family or friends who has lost someone due to COVID-19, so we want to honor the people who have passed with a candlelight vigil and also we want to honor our frontline healthcare workers. … Because of everything that they’ve had to go through.

“Someone at least knows someone or is a family member of a nurse, and the struggles, the triumphs that they had to go through to provide proper and appropriate healthcare, the best that they could for patients and families,” Moore said. “I think they need to be honored, and us at the NAACP will take time out of our days to let them know that we appreciate the fight that they put up. … I feel sometimes they didn’t get the support that they needed from the hospital administration or support that they needed from outside influences like the government. … We have to salute them, take our hats off to them.”

Robert Sproul, deputy director of the Belmont County Health Department, will serve as guest speaker.

“He’s going to let us know from a health department standpoint what actually happened and what they had to go through and how hard they fought to keep Belmont County’s numbers where they were,” Moore said.

The CEOs of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, East Ohio Regional Hospital and Trinity Health Care are expected to be on hand.

Moore said the Rev. Dave Demarest of the Church of God in Bridgeport will give the opening prayers for families who have lost loved ones, and Bishop Michael Tolliver from New Beginnings in Bellaire will give the closing prayer as attendees light sky lanterns and release them.

“It will be a symbolic thing as they rise into our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s hands,”

Moore said, noting 1,000 candles will be available for the vigil, along with 50 giant sky lanterns. He said people who have lost someone due to COVID can write that person’s name on a paper lantern with a sharpie.

“The response has been very well so far. No one has done anything like this in the community and the county,” he said. “Someone had to take that first step. … The more people I talk to about it, the more they like the idea.”

He recalled conversations he has had with people whose relatives died after contracting COVID-19.

“For people that have lost loved ones, being out here in the public I just get this feeling that there has been nothing done for the families, the friends, to express their grief. I think as the NAACP, we try to bring the community together. It’s not about race or anything like that. This has affected everybody in our whole area, so we want to show people that we are the leaders in the area and give people a chance to actually grieve.”

He said many younger people have died after contracting the virus.

“That in and of itself is a lot to deal with,” Moore said. “If it’s a car wreck then you can kind of understand it, but if it’s something like COVID-19 it becomes a little harder to understand. … It’s affected everyone. I’ve lost several friends due to COVID-19, several friends of the family. To see what people are going through, it’s almost like wartime. The military comes up and gives you a letter, and then you’re just forced to deal with a premature death. … I just want us to heal as a community. Let us grieve together and support each other while we grieve.

“As we move into a post-pandemic summer … I feel this will be a good opportunity for everyone to join hands and be thankful,” he said.

For more information, visit the NAACP Facebook page or belmontcountynaacp.org.