April 14, 2020 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Iris M. Soto of Kennett Square

Iris M. Soto, 81, of Kennett Square, died Easter Sunday, April 12, at The Friends Home in Kennett, Linden Hall, in Kennett Square.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she was the daughter of the late Isidro Soto and the late Celia Gonzalez. Iris grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y., and lived there until 2010, with her sister Gloria Soto and her father, Isidro Soto, who died in 2010 at the age of 103. Before moving to Kennett Square, Iris lived in Cranford, N.J. for nine years.

Iris began an artistic career with Norcross Greeting Cards in New York City, then worked for a British advertising agency, BBD&O in NYC, and finished her 45-year career as a commercial graphic artist with the J. Walter Thompson Agency, also in NYC, retiring in 2003. While with J. Walter Thompson, Iris worked on the promotional art for many significant movies, including the theater posters for the first Star Wars film in the late seventies.

Iris was a member of the Soroptimist International, a worldwide women’s organization dedicated to helping women improve their lives. She did volunteer work for the Jewish Guild for the Blind in NYC, was a charter member supporter for the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, and volunteered and did artwork for the Society of the 173^rd Airborne Brigade (U.S. Army).

She enjoyed many arts and crafts projects including knitting, making her own greeting cards, and designing clothing. Over her entire life, Iris enjoyed Broadway theater productions, visiting and financially supporting museums, and traveling throughout the United States and overseas. Iris loved sports, best of all professional soccer and her beloved NY Rangers hockey team, where she was a season ticket holder and officer in the Rangers Fan Club for many years. After she retired, Iris made hundreds of colorful scarves that she’d donate during the holidays to children who were seriously ill in the hospital. She was an ordained minister, a spiritual individual, frequently singing, and loved being with her family and friends.

Iris is survived by three sisters, Gloria Soto of Kennett Square, Isabel Soto and her husband Richard Ehrlichman of Avondale, and Maria Pereira of Cranford, N.J.; one niece, Beatrice Pereira of Westfield, N.J., and other loving relatives. Her services will be held at a later date.

To view her online tribute and to share a memory with her family, please visit www.kuzoandfoulkfh.com. Arrangements by the Foulk Funeral Home, West Grove.

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Emergency hospital leaving DelCo

Health

_1JF5280-Empty-beds — The emergency field hospital set up at The Glen Mills School two weeks ago is moving to East Stroudsburg where there is less hospital capacity than in Delaware County.

With more COVID-19 patients recovering at home and more beds and equipment allocated to hospitals, the emergency field hospital at The Glen Mills School is moving upstate.

National Guard personnel began began bringing equipment for the field hospital in the school’s gymnasium on March 28, and it was ready for use in two days, but it wasn’t needed. However, 100 of the 300 beds at the gym will remain in case they are needed.

Tim Boyce, the director of Emergency Services for Delaware County, said, “We’re putting the toys back in the box,” while briefing reporters as military personnel packed up some equipment at the school before taking the items to East Stroudsburg. “They’re going to an area that doesn’t have the hospital capacity that we do.”

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency intended the field hospital for low-acuity, non-COVID-19 related patients who needed hospital care so that hospitals would have room to treat patients with the Coronavirus. There was also an anticipated surge of COVID cases that didn’t materialize as anticipated.

“The surge has always been a fluid number,” Boyce said. “We do have more and more cases in Delaware County, and that will continue to grow. What’s changed in the last couple of weeks is how we care for patients. Not everyone with COVID is now being hospitalized, so we’ve kind of decreased the surge at hospitals.”

He also said that not only are more beds available in hospitals because of patients recovering at home, but the hospitals have added more critical care capacity in terms of beds and ventilators.

“We have more beds available; we have more ICU beds available,” Boyce added. “We want to make sure the severely ill people can be cared for in hospitals, rather than a shelter.”

A press release issued late Monday, quoted Boyce saying, “While we can’t become lax in our efforts to stay at home and follow the guidance on social distancing and wearing masks, we can be reassured by knowing that our local hospitals are prepared.”

He repeated in interviews that masks and distancing are helping to flatten the curve and that the original surge dates of April 18-20 were based on “dynamic modeling out of New York.”

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

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