30 MAY 13, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Queens World Film Festival salutes Elmhurst
Hospital workers with ‘Spirit of Queens Award’
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
As a salute to Elmhurst Hospital workers,
Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) dedicated
this year’s “Spirit of Queens Award” to
the entire hospital workforce for its unwavering and
heroic dedication to its patients amid the COVID-19
pandemic during a ceremony on May 10.
The award ceremony also served as a kickoff
event for Nurses Week activities.
Queens World, which MovieMaker Magazine
said is among the top 50 film festivals in the world,
is giving a standing ovation to Elmhurst’s 5,997
employees in the form of a complimentary allaccess
festival pass.
“We are so excited about this,” Queens World
Executive Director Katha Cato said during the
ceremony outside of Elmhurst Hospital.
“We will be bringing the world to Queens and
Queens to the world,” Cato said. “You know, we
found out something in the pandemic. We found
out what was really essential — people who go to
work. People who push a broom. People who make
a bed.”
Community members can purchase the “Heroes
of Elmhurst” tickets for $10 each for Elmhurst’s
health professionals. Thetickets typically cost
$150 but were deeply discounted by the streaming
platform Film Festival Flix, which is also donating
33 percent of the gross heroes ticket sales to
Elmhurst Hospital.
The tickets provide unlimited access to all
virtual screenings and can be found at queensworldfilmfestival.
org.
Additionally, Queens World will curate blocs
of short films accessible to patients and staff on
the hospital’s intra-web as a “Movies on the Menu”
screening series for an entire year.
Elmhurst Hospital was the “epicenter of the
epicenter” at the height of the pandemic, and Cato,
who lives near the hospital with her husband, artist
and director Preston Cato, recalled the early
days of the pandemic.
“When we would go to eat, not really realizing
the danger that we were putting you in to reach for
your hand to thank you. You involuntarily kind of
backed off but then gave me your hand. What an
incredibly heroic act that was,” Cato said. “We did
not know in the opening moments what we were
in for. Every system that we have had has been
rattled and broken, and some of them justifiably
so. But the system that could not be broken was
Elmhurst Hospital.”
Preston Cato said he was honored to be in the
presence of those who are tirelessly using their
skills and compassion to care for their patients.
He acknowledged the heroic work ofhospital staff
across the country who are still dealing with the
coronavirus pandemic.
Before presenting the Elmhurst Hospital workforce
with a custom made plaque in the form of
an EKG, Cato emphasized how they inspired
everyone.
“You were here at the epicenter of the epicenter,
and your leadership inspired us all as you kept
the heartbeat of the community going,” Cato said.
“You are Elmhurst strong. You are our heroes of
Elmhurst, so please accept this plaque as our
humble offering to you, and we’ll see you at
Katha and Preston Cato pose for a photo with elected offi cials and Elmhurst staff at the Queens
World Film Festival salute for Elmhurst Hospital staff . Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
the movies.”
Elmhurst Hospital CEO Helen Arteaga Landaverde
pointed out that this week is Nurses Week
and described nurses as the “quiet soldiers who
hold our hands when we are scared.”
Landaverde thanked Queens World for honoring
the hospital employees and giving them the
tremendous gift of an all-access pass.
“Because as many of you know whether you
watch a movie, or watch a film via streaming, via
the TV, via your phone or your iPad, film takes
our stories and makes them real,” Landaverde
said. “Film makes us imagine the impossible, and
the fact that the Queen’s Festival is filming our
story and telling our story or part of our story is
a huge honor, and I couldn’t be any more grateful
to them.”
Chief Nursing Officer Joann Gull, who oversees
1,600 nurses, said it was a great honor that the festival
was dedicated to their heroic staff, especially
during Nurses Week.
“Our staff played many roles during the pandemic.
They were caregivers, hand-holders,
substitute families and healers, and we became
together ‘Elmhurst Strong,'” Joann Gull, who
recently celebrated 50 years at Elmhurst, said. “I
thank you for this honor and for providing every
staff member a complimentary full festival allaccess
pass.”
Elmhurst Hospital CMO Dr. Jasmin Moshirpur
praised the staff, especially the nurses, calling
them their backbone during COVID-19 pandemic
for the sacrifices they made during the height of
the pandemic.
She expressed her appreciation for Queens
World for recognizing the service the staff provided
for the community.
“We thank you for this recognition. What the
film festival did in this way is another big recognition
to our nurses,” Moshirpur said.
Queens Borough President Donavan Richards
said Queens owed a tremendous amount of gratitude
to Elmhurst Hospital for “showing up” during
the pandemic and doing everything in its power
to keep patients and residents safe. He noted that
businesses in New York City are beginning to
reopen because of the tireless efforts of Elmhurst
Hospital workers and all essential workers across
the city.
“It was the doctors and nurses, which kept us
alive, and it is the science, which brought us the
vaccine, which will provide a way out of this pandemic,”
Richards said.
He thanked Queens World for featuring films
from around the world for over a decade before
presenting a Citation of Honor.
“It is art, it is artists and creativity, and organizations
like the Queens World Film Festival,
which will help us make sense of our experiences,”
Richards said. “And it is culture that makes us really
human.”
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who chairs
the Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee,
presented a City Council Citation to the staff
of Elmhurst Hospital for their response to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
He commented that Queens residents have always
known that Elmhurst Hospital is a first-class
institution providing first-rate health care.
“But not everyone in the world has always
known that. But, in part, because they have now
seen the courage, absolute courage of Elmhurst
Hospital workers and nurses and doctors and
staff, the world knows of your courage and your
dedication and your talent,” Van Bramer said.
“And so I just say thank you.”
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