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An estimated 150 people are being featured as the faces of “Copper Country Strong” in a group photo taken Tuesday at UP Health System—Portage.
While that is still only a fraction of the number of people who were impacted by the Father’s Day Flood or volunteered during the cleanup, the photo will help spread the word of how a community came together during a crisis.
Marketing and Physician Relations Specialist for UP Health System—Portage Will Shuett says the photo will be distributed nationally along with the story of “Copper Country Strong.”
“The photo that we’re taking today is going to exemplify exactly what Copper Country Strong means to the community and why we need to keep the momentum going, why we need federal help, why we need everybody outside the area to understand exactly how far we’ve come and how far we still need to go,” Schuett said.
The photo was taken in the parking lot of the hospital in Hancock with a drone by Keweenaw County’s Del Rajala.
T-shirt vendors were on hand selling “Copper Country Strong” shirts to help raise money for the Disaster Relief Fund at the Keweenaw Community Foundation.
As the crowd started to build prior to the photo, State Representative Scott Dianda said the spirit of compassion in the community was on display.
Dianda said, “This Copper Country Strong is definitely the best example of what we have here. It’s the people’s spirit. When things happen, we just all come together. This has shown every place across Michigan the kind of power we have with our people and their volunteerism, just looking out for the best of everybody in your neighborhood.”
Dianda has joined US Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, along with Congressman Jack Bergman, in calling for a quick response by President Trump to the request for a federal disaster declaration.
“So we’re just going through the process, waiting for this to get done, but we are very hopeful that they are going to take quick response to get this done. This is a priority for our legislature and also our federal partners,” Dianda said.
Getting the federal government to act quickly is one of the desired outcomes of the photo shoot and accompanying press release.
Schuett says they will be distributed online to various news outlets. He said, “My goal is to actually make it public so anybody that wants to use it or view it can. I’m also going to be distributing it to the Associated Press to try to get some of the major news stations out there to pick it up as a story and to understand exactly what we’ve been through.”
Here is the full press release from UP Health System–Portage:
