Saluting The Unsung Heroes of the COVID Era 

By KATHLEEN FERRELL

 

I’ve been around Stony Brook for a long time.

I’ve spent many years at the university, watching the research flow and the creativity burst. I’ve walked alongside young students with amazing ideas, all open to the prospect of a better, more rewarding life. I’ve watched the Research Park go from an idea to the home of two Centers of Excellence, one in IT, the other in energy.

And I’ve watched the rise of the amazing Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, exploding with visions of a superior technological future and an energy-efficient world. Everything the way it should be, on an amazing college campus.

What I never imagined would happen in my lifetime was a pandemic – but that’s exactly what we got, starting two years ago.

Sure, I’d watched “Outbreak” (about the end of humanity due to a contagion). In January 2020, I’d even purchased a popular board game called Pandemic. But I never imagined any of it could become truth.

(I still have the game. But I hid it from sight when we locked down that March and haven’t uncovered it since.)

During this priod of unknown developments – and unprecedented lifestyle changes – I became increasingly, incredibly aware of my personal connection to technology and energy. Not clean energy, necessarily; not solar or wind, specifically. Just energy.

I depended on it. I needed it to survive the pandemic, to survive day to day. And during this time of great fear and uncertainty, I saw most people take energy – a lifeline to sanity – for granted.

Healthcare workers were honored. First responders, once again, were heroes. But the utility repairman out on the street fixing downed wires? Never acknowledged. The cable company folks who brought Gov. Andrew Cuomo into our homes every day to let us know everything was OK? Never thanked.

And what about the Internet provider who let me visit my children every day on Zoom or FaceTime? Never recognized.

When the AERTC team asked me to write something for the newsletter, I knew immediately what I was going to say. I finally had a forum to say what I’ve wanted to say for nearly two years: thank you.

Thank you, technology and energy workers. Much obliged, service providers. Nothing but love for you, utility companies.

You helped us get through some very dark days over the past two years. You were our saviors. You are our champions. And we couldn’t have done it without you!