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Supervisor Luis Alejo announces March 10 unveiling of Monterey County COVID Memorial Garden
Summary
Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo said the county will unveil a COVID Memorial Garden during the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 10 to honor roughly 940 local victims and frontline workers; at least three families will speak and most project funding came from individual donors.
Supervisor Luis Alejo said Monterey County will unveil a COVID Memorial Garden on March 10 during the morning session of the Board of Supervisors meeting as a place to remember county residents who died during the COVID‑19 pandemic and to honor frontline workers.
The memorial grew from a referral Alejo filed in February 2021 and a subsequent board resolution he authored recognizing the first Monday of March as a day of remembrance for COVID victims and frontline heroes. "This is the first memorial of its kind in our county," Alejo said, adding that the garden is intended as a permanent place for families and future generations to reflect.
Alejo described the memorial as honoring "the 940 victims of the COVID pandemic" in Monterey County and said it will also pay tribute to thousands of frontline workers — including health‑care staff, teachers and farmworkers — who continued serving the community during the crisis. He said at least three families have agreed to speak at the unveiling and that the county worked with community partners and donors to fund the project; "we were able to generate most of the money coming from individual donors in the community," he said.
The unveiling will take place at the county government center, immediately outside county offices near the courthouse. Pascoli, the county public information officer who moderated the briefing, invited residents to attend and said an online form will be available starting next Tuesday for family members to submit names for inclusion in the memorial's online remembrance listing.
The county board approved the related resolution recognizing a day of remembrance; Alejo said the memorial seeks both to honor those who died and to acknowledge the difficult decisions and hardships the community faced. The county plans to host remarks from family members and community leaders at the morning ceremony and will make the commemorative display publicly accessible afterward.
