Solon High Grad Launches Platform Honoring Frontline Workers

SOLON, OH — A Solon High graduate has launched an online platform to honor frontline health care workers. The project — called Faces of the Frontline — shares images of health care workers who are saving lives during the new coronavirus pandemic.

Here's how it works: stories about front line workers are collected through the Faces of the Frontline website and Instagram, along with a photo of the worker and a caption or quote which distills their virtues. The stories are passed along by patients and peers who want to recognize the frontline worker.

The project's founder is Vibhu Krishna, a 2012 graduate of Solon High. She told Patch she wants to highlight doctors and nurses, but also respiratory therapists, radiology technicians and various medical workers. During the COVID-19 outbreak, her work feels more important than ever.

Beyond accepting stories through their website, Krishna's team is also actively seeking out social media posts about health care workers. If they spot one they love, they ask if they can share it on their platform. They try to speak to the featured worker and create a unique post in their honor.

The project found its way back to Cleveland for Krishna when she decided to feature someone close to her — her mother, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic.

"I woke up one morning and it just sort of inundated me — the weight of all of these stories, the traumas and stress our frontliners are facing, and the secondary stress it has on their loved ones," Krishna told Patch. Her post on her mother is below.

Krishna now lives in New York City and is studying at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons.

"I have already learned so much from being in the epicenter of this pandemic — and one such piece of knowledge is confirmation of my suspicion of the undeniable role of the arts in humanizing the practice of medicine," Krishna told Patch.

To see the Faces of the Frontlines website, click here.