The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 41,000 New Yorkers. It has reshaped neighborhoods and lives. So many people are no longer here. Collectively, New York City has lost so much.

Over the next few months, Missing Them, THE CITY’s COVID-19 memorial and journalism project, will be spending time in neighborhoods across the city that were disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Our goal is to listen to and connect with New Yorkers, in their own communities, to understand how we’ve been collectively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join us this Saturday, Sept. 17 at Moore Homestead Playground in Elmhurst, Queens from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. for the first in a series of neighborhood conversations about how COVID-19 has changed the lives of New Yorkers.

Residents and neighbors will have the opportunity to connect with journalists and volunteers and share the ripple effects of the pandemic in Elmhurst and nearby communities — from jobs and healthcare to housing, mental health and more. We’ll have journalists and volunteers engaging neighbors in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog.

Woodside On The Move, a local nonprofit organization, will be distributing free food and PPE (personal protective equipment) items.

What would you like to share about the losses you’ve endured or lessons and insights that you’ve gained along the way? What are some of the questions you have that we as journalists can help find answers to? What are the issues that matter to you related to the COVID-19 pandemic? We’re listening. 

We also welcome neighbors to share stories of loved ones lost to COVID-19. We will honor their legacy together through an obituary on our digital memorial.

THE CITY launched MISSING THEM in May 2020 as a collaborative effort to name every New Yorker who died of COVID-19 and tell a story about them. Throughout the past two years, we’ve heard from thousands of New Yorkers. We’ve recorded over 2,600 names and published more than 500 obituaries.

The project has also produced in-depth accountability journalism on the pandemic and the response in city jails, nursing homes and Hart Island, the city’s potter’s field, where an estimated 1 in 10 New Yorkers who died are buried. 

We’ve also brought New Yorkers together online through virtual events and a theatrical adaptation with the Working Theater, an award-winning off-Broadway theater company.

If you’d like to reach out to the MISSING THEM team to share ideas or volunteer, please email us at memorial@thecity.nyc.

Moore Homestead Playground is located at Broadway and 82nd Street in Queens, near the Elmhurst Ave. E-M-R Station. We hope to meet you there.

MISSING THEM is supported, in part, by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia Journalism School.