COVID-19 Memorial Finds New Home At Monmouth County Farm

WALL, NJ – What started as a simple memorial to a loved one lost to COVID-19 on the beaches of Belmar has since grown tenfold in size and influence. Recognized as the first national COVID-19 memorial, this local tribute will find its permanent home at Allaire Community Farm in Wall Township.

In January 2021, Rima Samman created the Rami's Heart COVID-19 Memorial to honor her brother and others who lost their lives to COVID-19. The memorial started as yellow-painted clam shells arraigned in the shape of a heart with the names of people lost to COVID-19 written on stones. As the word spread, the number of hearts grew from a single heart to 10 hearts.

“As the summer season was slowly approaching, I knew it would be a matter of time before the memorial would have to be removed from the beach. I could see how important a memorial of this, or any type, had become to grieving families," Samman said.

“I reached out to local and state officials for help in finding a permanent location. We received no replies. My partner and I knew we had to take matters into our own hands and relocate the memorial to a permanent location considering it represented names from all over our nation.”

The importance of the memorial grew, and the decision was made to start a non-profit so that all those who died due to the coronavirus could be recognized. After a few months, a permanent site was secured at Allaire Community Farm in what is known as the first permanent COVID-19 monument.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the memorial will take place at Allaire Community Farm on Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.

“We intend to build a memorial garden to surround the display,” Samman added. “Our mission is to continue to display the names of those lost during this pandemic and honor all 610,000 lives (and more as that number continues to grow). Even though this memorial began with just some painted clamshells and pebbles, this project officially makes us the first permanent Covid-19 national memorial.”