AMHERST, Mass. – UMass Amherst will join nationwide tributes to honor COVID-19 pandemic frontline workers beginning Wednesday, April 15, by illuminating two top floors of the W. E. B. Du Bois Library with blue lights as well as offering complimentary pansies to on-site campus employees.
The library lights will show special appreciation for workers across the Commonwealth with special thanks to those serving the UMass campus in Amherst. It is timed to coincide with similar initiatives for One Day Boston, an annual celebration of resilience on the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. The library will remain illuminated until Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home orders have been lifted.
On-site campus workers will also have the opportunity to pick up pansies grown by the university’s landscape management staff. The flowers are grown each spring for planting throughout campus, but restricted campus operations derailed that plan this year. The campus wanted to put the flowers to good use, so they are available for drive-through pick up, using proper physical distancing on Wednesday, April 15, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Haigis Mall along the southern edge of the Fine Arts Center Plaza.