Signs for the Frontlines: Wesleyan student leads effort to honor healthcare workers

As COVID-19 began changing life as Americans knew it, Carson Schiller felt the need to act.
The Wesleyan School junior thought about the Northside Hospital nurse who’s a longtime family friend and wanted to support her and other healthcare workers bearing the brunt of battling the global pandemic. She also wanted to help bring her Peachtree Corners community together during a time of uncertainty and to connect her fellow students who’d been separated by online schooling.

From those thoughts sprang a project — “Signs for the Frontlines.”

Since May 5, the road Northside Hospital employees take to their parking area has been lined with 250 plastic signs on stakes. They display Wesleyan students’ messages of inspiration, motivation and gratitude.

“The whole idea behind it was that as they’re driving in, they would see that motivation on the signs and that would really push them through those front doors to keep on doing what they’re doing,” Schiller said.

All students in grades K-12 at her Christian private school were invited to participate with an email Schiller sent in mid-April. Some of the signs display Biblical passages. One features a T-shirt with a Superman-style “S” and the message, “Superheroes in scrubs.”

Along with a “We love you” and a spray of hearts, Schiller’s own sign features her favorite quote, from Mahatma Gandhi: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

She said her design was inspired by thinking about how healthcare workers are changing the world. Meanwhile, her project has left a mark on the world of its own.

‘Encouragement and Hope’
Bethanie Dailey, Pre-Op Manager at Northside Hospital and Peachtree Corners resident, helped Schiller coordinate logistics with the hospital. She said Signs for the Frontlines is a source of daily inspiration for hospital employees.

“Carson’s idea has given encouragement and hope to everyone at the Northside Atlanta campus as we continue to face the daily challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is truly a group effort as we all face this pandemic together,” said Dailey. “Northside Hospital sincerely appreciates Carson and the smiles she and her classmates’ signs provide us every day as we travel Northside’s campus!”

Schiller was connected with Dailey by Renee White, the family friend who inspired her project. White and her husband Tracy are longtime Peachtree Corners residents who lived across the street from the Schillers in Wellington for many years until the Schillers moved to Riverview.
White is also a Pre-Op nurse who has worked at Northside Hospital for 25 years. She’s known Carson Schiller since she was born and praised her perseverance and care for others.

“Working at this time, there are just so many changes as they’re learning more about [COVID-19]. … Every time we go into work it seems like there’s a change in a policy or a procedure or how we’re supposed to do something,” White said. “It’s also stressful and a little bit emotional because … we always incorporate the family with the patient. Now, families can’t be there with the patient.”
She looks forward to seeing the students’ signs every time she passes them.

“It’s so nice when you’re arriving and when you’re leaving to see how many people are praying for us and thinking about us and took time to make those little signs,” she said. “And there’s just so many of them! You just see their little personalities, from the younger ones who drew the little stick figures and then there are the ones that are just so impressive, that are just very artistic.”

Getting It Done
After her project was approved by her school, Schiller was connected with Wesleyan’s Dean of Student Life, Mary Stephenson. Stephenson said she was grateful for the opportunity to help but said Schiller deserves “100 percent of the credit.”

“From the initial idea to the follow-through of actually putting the signs up, Carson showed tremendous initiative and gumption to turn her vision into a reality,” Stephenson said. “I’m very proud of her and grateful to have been a part of it!”

Schiller worked with Stephenson and fine arts teachers Meagan Brooker and Heather Niemann to spread the word to all of Wesleyan’s students. Niemann helped her learn to convert the students’ designs into formats that would work for Global Signs, the company that donated the signs.

Wesleyan parent Gregg Stopher, owner of Global Signs, is a longtime resident of Peachtree Corners, with his wife, Flora, and sons, Trust, 12, and Greyson, 9, who participated in the sign project.
“When I saw [Schiller’s] email, I thought, here is a teenager who felt compelled to ‘do something … anything’ to contribute in a positive way to this crazy period of time we are experiencing,” Stopher said. “Great project initiated and executed by a fine young lady. Just thankful that we were in a position to help!”

The signs were placed at the hospital on May 5 by a small team including Schiller and her parents, Derek and Kristin Schiller; Wesleyan’s Stephenson; and Northside’s White and Dailey.

“As I was putting them up, a lot of the nurses and doctors and scientists were actually going on their lunch break … and it was just such a cool experience when they rolled down their windows and would just be so grateful for us distributing these signs,” Schiller said.

She thinks Signs of the Frontlines has changed her outlook on life by showing her what can happen when you work hard for something. “If I have an idea in my head, I can spark it into a fire, and I can get it done,” she said.

“I’m just so grateful to have such an amazing community like Wesleyan to back me up on this idea. We executed it together as one community and as the community of Peachtree Corners,” she said. “And I just am so grateful for everyone who helped me along the way, for all the students who submitted (artwork), because this wouldn’t have happened without them, and the ability to show our appreciation to the hospital as a school was really amazing.”

Schiller encourages Peachtree Corners residents to show appreciation for healthcare workers in their own ways.

As Georgia reopens, “We have to continue to thank those who have risked their lives and are allowing things to open up,” she said.

Living the JOY
Jennifer Copeland, Wesleyan’s Assistant Head of School for External Affairs, said Schiller did a “phenomenal job of uniting our community, organizing the entire project, and thinking through every detail. She even coordinated with the operations team at Northside Hospital for when the grass was cut to find the optimal time to put out yard signs!” Copeland said.

“At Wesleyan, our school motto is JOY – Jesus, Others, Yourselves. It is so special when we see students living out this concept of putting others ahead of themselves. Carson thought of others — and in this case those were frontline workers putting their patients ahead of themselves,” Copeland said. “We are proud of Carson and all of our students who are using this unusual time to think of how they can support others.”

Kristen Schiller is proud of what her daughter accomplished. What probably impressed her the most, she said, was Carson’s “attention to detail, her leadership and communication skills, but most of all her compassion to bridge her school and Northside during this unprecedented time.”

“I think because of Carson’s Signs for the Frontlines project, it gave everyone who participated an opportunity to feel like they helped in some way,” she said. “Hopefully, years from now, the Wesleyan students will reflect and remember that they brightened the Northside Hospital Campus and brought smiles to the faces of its staff.” ■