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On Thursday, July 30, the Tioga County COVID-19 Task Force, in cooperation with numerous local organizations and volunteers, completed their goal of packaging and distributing over 15,000 to area businesses. The packaging events were hosted by Mansfield University.

“I think this is a real example of community engagement that the university cherishes so much,” said Mansfield University President, Dr. Charles Patterson. “The ability to partner with our county commissioners and with our healthcare agencies around the region for the safety of our community and the health and safety of our students…is paramount. As we regain in-person instruction in the fall, starting August 17 – we will have a number of students coming back to campus to engage in in-person instruction. The ability to keep our students and community safe through as masking program like this with the community is very important.”

The Tioga County commissioners have also been actively engaged in this project and seeing good results.

“We’ve been getting some really positive feedback from the businesses and different people we’ve been distributing them too,” said Commissioner Hamilton. “They’ve been very appreciative of having a positive approach to trying to get their customers wear the masks in the stores.”

The Task Force is confident in their mission in showing that we don’t have to choose between physical health and economic health in Tioga County.

“Our encouragement to the Governor and his executive staff is to reconsider [the shutdowns],” said Commissioner Coolidge. “And give us the privilege of – to those institutions who will follow the protocol to a T – protecting not only their personal, but those coming in and out of their businesses. We’ve had that engagement with the governor and his staff, and we’re still pursuing it…”

Over the course of the mask packaging project, over 50 volunteers have prepared over 15,000 masks, contributed over 600 hours, benefiting hundreds of businesses across Tioga County. The Tioga County COVID-19 Task Force encourages everyone to partner with their efforts in masking up Tioga.