This year do your part to step up and mask up

By Marianne Austin

TheCoshoctonBeaconToday . com

“ Let ’ s keep people safe ,” Mayor Mark Mills said . “ Since COVID has gotten closer to home and more people we know have been affected by it , people are buying in to keeping people safe . We have been handed something that we haven ’ t dealt with in 100 years .”

Mills said the area was at the bottom of the list per capita . Then

totals jumped right before Thanksgiving .

“ We give money to charity , we donate our own blood and we try in any way we can to help people , but wearing a mask is one of the hardest things for people to do ,” he said . “ Although most are doing good wearing a mask , Gov . Mike DeWine wanted to contact communities because people just aren ’ t listening . The one thing I got out of it was state officials have really reached out to us .”

Kirby Hasseman and Sen . Jay Hottinger wanted to do something and decided to create a video . Businesses , healthcare workers , the hospital and every segment of leadership in the community made the video in three days . The fourth day it was out working with state officials to get their videos done and start the Step Up Mask Up campaign .

“ In this video Sen . Jay Hottinger encourages Coshocton to step up and mask up ,” Mills said . “ In addition , Hasseman Marketing came up with masks and repositional stickers to be given to local businesses and healthcare facilities designed to remind people to step up and mask up . I think it was great to have not only local , but state leaders involved . Gov . DeWine met with local officials in Coshocton County on Zoom and asked them to help get the message out that we need to be safe and wear masks . The government is not trying to tell you what to do ; we want people to be safe . If Gov . DeWine did nothing , people

would complain , and if he does something , people complain .”

Mills said thinking about others before yourself is something people should all do .

“ The sooner we make good decisions to protect ourselves , the sooner we can get through this ,” he said . “ At the beginning of August , the statewide average

We give money to charity , we donate our own blood and we try in any way we can to help people , but wearing a mask is one of the hardest things for people to do .

Mayor

of cases per capita during the previous two weeks was 101 . This week the statewide average is 769 cases per 100,000 residents during the past two weeks . There also are seven counties that are at 1,000 or more , which means at least one out of every 100 residents has tested positive for COVID during the past two weeks and are at risk of spreading it to others .”

To view the Step Up Mask Up video , go to https :// youtu . be / 4tpIJVC3VE4 .