COLUMBUS (WCMH) — A pair of nurses from Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center are going to the Super Bowl — well, sort of.

Three months ago, we had a Pandemic Postcard on Jessica Curtisi and the “Hope Blossoms” T-shirt that she created with co-worker Craig Dixon to raise funds for the United Way. Now, the United Way is sending Curtisi and Dixon to the Super Bowl, cardboard-style.

“Exactly! It’s crazy!” said Curtisi, a registered nurse.

But crazy in a good way. Curtisi and Dixon were chosen by the United Way as two of the charity’s 3,000 cardboard cutouts nationwide to get a seat at Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Tampa, Florida.

“We don’t know where we’re sitting,” Curtisi said with a laugh. “We don’t get to keep the cutout or anything, but it’s an honor, though.” 

The honor comes from raising nearly $4000 by selling a T-shirt she painted and Dixon marketed. Flowers around lungs without air, now blossoming with hope.

“At the end of life, I hold their hands. I touch their forehead, I let them know they’re not alone. I tell them that they’re loved.” Curtisi said in November. 

Today, she and most of her co-workers are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

“I think it’s made me hyper aware of the value of life and our actions every day. I feel so proud to be part of my team here,” Curtisi said.

The Super Bowl trip gives her and Dixon another platform for hope to blossom. And even though Curtisi knows that she isn’t out of the tunnel yet, at least she can see the light at the end of it.

“I do,” she said. “It’s reassuring.”