NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (WCBS 880) — A New Jersey singer-songwriter with relatives on the frontlines of the pandemic is giving healthcare workers a salute with music.
Kathleen Elle, a 23-year-old from New Brunswick, has family working on the frontlines every day, and while she can’t support them in person, she salutes them every night virtually.
She holds a live concert on Facebook Live when her cousins in the ER are able to take a break.
She also found ways to help them during the peak.
“Being inspired by their efforts and first seeing a lack of PPE that was necessary for this virus, my mother and I started making masks,” Elle explains.
She and her mother donated 2,300 masks. But Elle wanted to do more.
To inspire a message of hope, she wrote an original song.
It's called “Superheroes In Disguise,” about the people risking their lives on the front lines who she calls the real heroes. She hopes her song will help people understand the tasks healthcare workers undertake every day.
“Not everyone could realize what health care workers – especially in hospitals and ICUs – we're going through,” Elle explains.
One of them being her aunt, and ICU nurse in New Jersey for 30 years.
“The analogy she made was, she kind of felt like a veteran coming home from the Vietnam War and that no one would know, unless you were there, what was going on,” Elle said.
Elle calls the song her part to make a positive impact trying to shine a light anyway that she can.