Patrick Paulson, the assistant manager at Adams Fairacre Farms’ Kingston location, said Thursday that he was honored to be among 22 people selected to serve on Ulster County’s COVID-19 Commemoration Commission.

The commission is tasked with designing and curating a monument to front-line workers and Ulster County residents who died of COVID-19.

Paulson said until now, he had never been invited to join such a board, and was not immediately sure what the commission's mission was.

“They kind of explained a little beforehand what it was,” he said in the bustling store. “It seems like a really important thing, and I’m super happy to be involved with it.”

County Executive Pat Ryan announced the monument plans on March 8, the second anniversary of the county’s first confirmed case of COVID-19.

Matt Ross, a council representative with the North Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, also was named to the commission. He said carpenters from his union kept up with their community service projects for veterans, despite pandemic restrictions.

He looks forward to helping design — and build — the tribute.

“I thought it was a perfect fit for us to be a part of this,” he said Thursday afternoon. “It’s all new territory for us on what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it, how we’re going to remember everybody lost, what the pandemic brought to us and what has changed in our lives. That’s what we gave to look at: Where we’re going in the future with this and remembering who we lost to get here.”

Other commission members include lawmakers, police and firefighters. The first meeting is next month.

County officials wrote in a press release they hope to have the monument completed in 2023.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it has to be big,” Ross said.