Newsletter: Spring 2026 Newsletter
Marked by COVID’s Spring 2026 newsletter covers a new permanent COVID memorial in Monterey County, five years of COVID Memorial Day, and HOPE Accounts going live in California. Plus a note from Executive Director Kristin Urquiza on what it means to keep showing up.
Permanent Memorialization
A New Permanent Memorial — and Why It Matters
This spring, we had the honor of attending the opening of the Monterey County COVID-19 Memorial in California, a permanent memorial dedicated to honoring the more than 900 people who died, and the community that came together to protect one another.
Hilary Porter speaks about her husband Lloyd at the Monterey County COVID-19 Memorial unveiling.
The Monterey County Memorial grew out of exactly the kind of community we’ve spent five years building. MBC community leader and monthly donor Hilary Porter spoke at the unveiling about her husband Lloyd — one of many bereaved families in our network whose grief has become fuel for local action. This is how our work multiplies: we build the community, and our members carry it forward.
Attending the unveiling, I got to meet Hilary in person for the very first time after years of connection through this community. It felt like reconnecting with a dear old friend. Moments like that remind me of exactly why we do this work.
This memorial is now the estimated 12th permanent COVID memorial in the country. To put that in perspective: the 1918 flu, which killed tens of millions, has just two memorials in the entire United States. A bench in Colorado. A bench in Vermont. We are working hard to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.
This is exactly why our grassroots commemoration efforts matter: these local memorials are building the foundation for permanent state memorials, and ultimately, a permanent National COVID Memorial.
COVID Memorial Day
Five Years and Counting
Earlier this spring, we organized our fifth annual vigil to mark the anniversary of COVID becoming a permanent part of our lives. More than 300 mourners participated in our candle lighting ceremony and shared the names of their lost loved ones, offering a powerful reminder of our need for spaces to honor and recognize our grief.
COVID Memorial Day is now officially recognized in more than 250 cities, 13 states, and has bipartisan legislation in Congress. We also shared updates on our Remember Every One campaign to collect a remembrance for each of the more than one million people lost to COVID.
It’s never too late to make your voice heard. Contact your local city council member, county official, mayor, or governor and urge them to recognize COVID Memorial Day, next year and beyond.
Baby Bonds
HOPE Accounts Go Live in California
Marked by COVID remains the only community partner in the coalition fully dedicated to COVID orphans. This spring, HOPE Accounts go live in California — and it’s a milestone years in the making.
Back in 2022, Marked by COVID and our allies helped pass legislation to secure $115 million in trust from the state, providing small trust accounts to children who lost a parent or caretaker to COVID, as well as children in long-term foster care. After three years of tireless work to ensure the application process is as low-burden as possible for eligible families, those accounts are now becoming real.
We now turn to identifying eligible children and building our reserves with philanthropic partners across the state. We want to extend deep thanks to the Hellman Foundation for supporting our efforts in San Francisco, and we look forward to bringing this opportunity to communities statewide.
Our plan is to work with coalition partners to expand this legislation to all vulnerable children in the future, because an investment in children is an investment in our future.
A Note from Our Founder
On showing up.
Not long ago, it felt like COVID was all anyone talked about. Now it can sometimes feel like it never happened at all. But for those of us who lost someone irreplaceable, or who continue to battle the long-term complications of a COVID infection including Long COVID, it remains with us, right below the surface.
I’ve been able to piece together a new normal. But the old normal, my hopes and dreams for myself, my future, and my country, died the day my dad took his last breath on June 30th. Grief is not linear. It never goes away. And as so many of us in this community know, COVID grief can be a constant companion in ways that are hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t lived it.
I’ve also noticed how many allies have stepped away. COVID memorial websites going to 404 pages. Nonprofit organizations dedicated to COVID survivors shuttering their doors. Leaders moving on to the next big thing. It’s taught me a lot about who I am and what I value.
One thing I’ve learned through this journey: I am reliable. When we said we would make sure our loved ones were not forgotten, we meant it. Where others gave up, we continue to lean in, recognizing that this work may take the rest of our lifetimes.
I’ve also learned that I’m not afraid. Not afraid of rejection, not afraid of being misunderstood, not even afraid of being alone or unsupported by the establishment. Because we’ve built something incredible together. A community that is lockstep with one another, even if we don’t talk every day, even if we’ve never met in person.
This spring, at the Monterey memorial, I met Hilary Porter for the first time after years of connection through this community. It was as if we were old friends. That is the power of what we’ve built.
And when I start to scratch the surface, I find champions everywhere. People who are astonished that there are no plans in place for a national COVID memorial. People who didn’t go through what we went through, but who still recognize the critical importance of creating space in our national memory to reckon with public health tragedies and their disparate impacts on low-income communities, the elderly, immigrants, and communities of color.
Amid all the noise and division in our national discourse, one thing rings true: COVID was a horrific tragedy that should be remembered as such, and whose losses should be fully accounted for — to honor those who didn’t make it, and to protect those of us who may face another crisis down the road.
The days can be long and the victories few and far between. But we are making progress. And if we stick together, we will continue to make progress. This work is worthy. We will accomplish our goals.
If you’re new to this community, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. If you’ve been with us for a while, thank you for sticking around.
If you’d like to support this work, or talk about how you might get involved, I’d love to hear from you.
With love and in grief,
Kristin