Skip to content

Alert Bay resident carves tribute to his community kicking COVID-19’s butt

‘Our little village crushed the curve with love and commitment’
21756990_web1_200610-NIG-AlertBaycarving-COVIDart_2
A beautiful handmade piece of art detailing how Alert Bay ‘crushed’ its cases of COVID-19. (Jamie Taylor photo)

Alert Bay resident Jamie Taylor is so proud of how his island community of roughly 1,200 people defeated 30 cases of COVID-19, he created a beautiful handmade piece of art to commemorate the moment.

RELATED: Alert Bay crushes last case of COVID-19

Taylor and his 11-year-old grandson, who was visiting for the first five weeks of the pandemic, noted that after they had carved a sword, a machete and a spear out of wood, they started talking about creating a bigger piece that depicted the communal efforts of the village, showing how he felt they dealt with the cluster outbreak of COVID-19 cases.

Taylor added his grandson was very excited by the idea, saying, “‘Oh yeah! Gramps, we sooo have to do that. Can I have the axe when it’s all over?’ It still makes me chuckle whenever I think of it, and the many other things he says.”

RELATED: Alert Bay lifts state of emergency as outbreak dies down

After that, the two of them started to work. The design features a chopping block made from a big red cedar round. The COVID-19 monster is made from the same material after Taylor modified it with a chainsaw. The heart-axe is made of plywood.

“Our little village crushed the curve with love and commitment, like splitting a chunk of knotty firewood,” said Taylor, who added that the piece is proving to be quite popular, as he hears people slowing down all day long to take a look at it.


@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter



Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
Read more