Memorial Service for Those Who Died During the Pandemic

Summit Community Service of Remembrance

The Summit community is invited to a memorial gathering to honor those loved ones lost during the pandemic, to be held on Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. The event will be held on the lawn of Central Presbyterian Church, 70 Maple Street, just off the Green in Summit.

Several community leaders will speak, including Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz and Summit Mayor Nora Radest. Attendees will be invited to write the names of their lost loved ones on cards that will be gathered and put in a box to be interred in a memorial garden that is planned for the site of the memorial service. While Central Presbyterian Church is hosting the event, the service will not be a religious one, and people of all faiths (or no faith) are welcome and encouraged to attend and mourn together as a community.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic 18 months ago, we have not been able to gather as a community to celebrate the lives of those who have died, to grieve together and to offer support to each other. Now is the time for us to gather, putting aside whatever differences we have, to begin to try to acknowledge together all those that we have lost these past 18 months,” said Rev. Don Steele of Central Church.

Free parking will be available in the Elm Street municipal parking lot. In the event of rain, the service will move into the church auditorium, where masking will be required by all attendees.