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Shoe display shows how many Iowa residents have died from coronavirus

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Iowa group marks coronavirus deaths with shoes An Iowa group put more than 800 pairs of shoes on display outside a Des Moines school to illustrate how many state residents have died from the coronavirus. (Thurston Hopkins/Getty Images)

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

DES MOINES, Iowa — Many souls have lost their lives due to the coronavirus pandemic. A central Iowa group decided to use soles to show how many people have died from COVID-19 in Iowa.

Each Pair Iowa, with help from Des Moines Public Schools, on Saturday put together a display at Central Academy in Des Moines, KCCI reported. Every pair of shoes represents an Iowa resident who has died from COVID-19.

“Numbers are cold. But this is the reality. Each pair is a life,” Each Pair Iowa co-founder Valerie Cohen told the television station.

According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, 827 people have died from coronavirus in Iowa as of Sunday evening.

Cohen, a bus driver and parent in the Des Moines area, has been traveling around the state since May, displaying a pair of donated shoes that represent a coronavirus death, WHO-TV reported.

“Look at these losses. Think of it as a human being and not as a number,” Cohen told the television station.

Some of the shoes were worn by the virus victims, KCCI reported.

“Each pair is a daughter, a son, a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a best friend,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s daughter, Zoey Cohen, is a student at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, which had more than 2,000 students during the 2019-2020 school year.

“There are always crowded classrooms, crowded buses, crowded hallways, there’s no way to divide the school enough so we can stay safe,” Zoey Cohen told KCCI.

Friday, teachers participated in a car parade to protest Gov. Kim Reynolds’ mandate for all school districts in the state to have in-person learning at least 50% of the week, the television station reported.

“You can’t have a size five solution for a size 12 district,” Valerie Cohen told WHO. “That’s why local control is so important.”

Viewing the shoes outside the school steps was a sobering experience.

“Seeing all these shoes, seeing all of what would be people, what would be dead Iowans thanks to this pandemic, it feels very out of this world,” Zoey Cohen told WHO.

Cox Media Group

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