Needing encouragement, Lafayette hospitals plan 'park and pray' for team members, patients

Staff reports
·2 min read

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Hospital workers and patients in Lafayette could use some encouragement, a request from the city's hospitals.

ICU hospital beds in Lafayette start the week at just over 90% full, with a third of those beds – 33.1% – devoted to COVID-19 patients, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.

Community members gather outside IU Health Arnett to show support for medical staff battling the COVID-19 pandemic, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020 in Lafayette.
Community members gather outside IU Health Arnett to show support for medical staff battling the COVID-19 pandemic, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020 in Lafayette.

On Monday, the ISDH reported 647 new cases of the virus in Tippecanoe County. Omicron remains the dominate variant. Two more people died from COVID-19, bringing the county's reported death total to 338.

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IU Health Arnett and Franciscan, along with Woof Boom Radio Q106.7, ask the public to join them in the event Friday aimed at boosting the spirits of those inside the hospital.

The Park and Pray event – 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday at both hospitals – is a chance "to pray over, offer messages of encourage and bless team members and patients at our hospitals as we continue to battle COVID-19," according to a release from IU Health Arnett.

Each event:

  • Franciscan Health Lafayette

  • 1701 S Creasy Lane, Lafayette

  • Use the south and visitors lots

  • IU Health Arnett Hospital,

  • 5165 McCarty Lane, Lafayette

  • Use entrance 4, the main entrance off McCarty and the largest parking lot. Additional parking is available at entrance 5 which is the medical office building. Third overflow lot would be entrance 2, which is Radiology entrance. Please do not park or block entrance 3 as this is the emergency entrance.

How to participate:

  • All cars will be asked to tune into Q106.7 and turn the blinkers on in their cars.

  • Wave homemade signs.

  • At 5:30 p.m. Stone with Q106.7 will start the program with prayers, words of encouragement and music.

The hospitals organized similar events in the first year of the pandemic, in April and December 2020, the Journal & Courier reported.

“Wherever you are right now, if you are sitting in your car, if you are in the hospital, if you’re a hospital worker, I just want to say thank you,” Thom Redmond, pastor of Crestview Community Church, said during the radio broadcast for the event in December 2020. “Thank you for all of your sacrifice and all of your hard work…thank you for this great community that we live in that is battling a tremendous problem right now.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: ICU Hospitals plan 'park and pray' event to encourage staff, patients