Orla Cummaford-Roberts, a sophomore at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn,...

Orla Cummaford-Roberts, a sophomore at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, has been making jeweled "angel" keychains to serve as symbols of hope to hand out to essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Harborfields School District

A Harborfields High School student is making sure the region's essential workers are equipped with "angels" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Orla Cummaford-Roberts, a sophomore at the Greenlawn school, has been helping to create and distribute jeweled-angel keychains to serve as symbols of comfort and hope for front-line workers across Long Island. She also created a website to promote the keychains.

The project, called the "COVID Angels Project," was initiated last spring by Charlotte Rhee, a Huntington-based plastic surgeon who would bring the keychains to COVID-19 units when she volunteered at Huntington Hospital. Cummaford-Roberts' mother, Angela, is an operating-room nurse at the hospital.

"We all need to work together towards this common goal of getting everyone back on their feet," said Cummaford-Roberts, 16, who is a cadet with the Centerport Fire Department and a member of her school's chamber orchestra and Robotics Club.

The keychains — of which about 20,000 have been made since the program's inception — are created using assorted beads, wires and wings. Each piece is slightly different and the angels are blessed by Long Island pastors and rabbis, Roberts said.

"She is a remarkable young lady," Rhee said of Cummaford-Roberts. "We are so proud to know her."

Those interested in requesting angels or angel-making kits can visit the COVID Angels Project's website, covidangelsproject.godaddysites.com.

— MICHAEL R. EBERT
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