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When Menlo Park nurse Elizabeth McCarthy received a letter from the National Institute of Health (NIH), she said she was mostly panicked. But instead of bad news, the letter told McCarthy that her COVID-19-themed piñata would become a part of the permanent collection of the NIH’s Stetten Museum in Bethesda, Maryland.
McCarthy began making piñatas of the COVID-19 virus when the vaccine was first announced. She said she’ll never forget the day she heard that the vaccine would begin be rolling out in late December. McCarthy was driving as the radio announced the development and says she immediately began crying.
In 2021, McCarthy sent a piñata designed to look like the COVID-19 virus to Dr. Anthony Fauci, then Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, who McCarthy describes as her “hero.” McCarthy assumed that Fauci would likely never see the piñata she sent to him, but hoped that smashing a physical representation of the virus would provide some catharsis.
“I hoped that he was going to take it home and smash it,” McCarthy said. “Maybe with his grandkids, or him and his co-workers would take it outside and smash it, you know, just for fun.”
McCarthy said that she figured it would likely never reach its destination as NIH employees could be cautious about a strange box ending up at the headquarters. However, when she received a letter from the NIH, she was worried, not expectant.
The letter, instead of telling McCarthy that she was exposed to some rare virus, said that Fauci had not wanted to destroy the piñata she sent and it would instead be a part of the NIH museum’s permanent collection. McCarthy had included a letter to Fauci in her package, which she gave approval for them to display as well.
McCarthy, who works as a nurse, began making piñatas because she believed people would be having parties to celebrate the end in sight of the pandemic.
“I thought… Oh, my God, I should make a piñata, and have a party,” McCarthy said “And then I thought, oh my god, the world needs a piñata, the world is going to want to party.”
McCarthy sought a COVID piñata online but found that the options were lacking, so she decided to make her own.
“And it just looked so damn good,” McCarthy said. “I must say… I just impressed my own self.”
McCarthy began selling piñatas in March 2021 and continued for six months, but McCarthy said it was never about the money or this type of recognition. She said she wanted to bring some joy to the “dreary” lives of the pandemic.
“I know it brought joy to people’s lives, but it brought so much joy to my life,” McCarthy said. “I spent every waking moment that I wasn’t at work taking care of COVID patients, at home, making COVID piñatas and it just made me so happy.”
