InTucker Magazine

Creating a Movement

City of Tucker Pushing Residents, Businesses to “Mask Up” During the Pandemic

“You do not want to have this disease.”

Those are the words of Dr. Joshy Jacob, a professor of microbiology and immunology who has spent the past several months studying the coronavirus at Emory University. Jacob has said those words countless times in his role as a member of the Mayor’s Coronavirus Advisory Board here in Tucker. And they are words that Mayor Frank Auman has taken to heart.

At the Mayor’s urging, the City Communications Department launched a public information campaign last month to encourage all Tucker residents and business owners to wear masks in public. Dubbing it the “Mask Movement”, the message has been spread via social media, billboards and now here in print. The effort is designed to meet the Mayor’s goal of having “more people wearing more masks more of the time” to flatten the curve during this pandemic.

The biggest effort so far was a video produced by the City featuring several local children wearing masks and stating reasons why wearing a mask can make life better for everyone. Each of the kids is a rising fifth-grader, leading Mayor Auman to walk on camera and cleverly ask “are you smarter than a fifth grader?”

While more of that type of outreach is coming, the City continues to work to put masks in the hands of those who need them most. In late July, the City’s Economic Development team distributed 1,200 masks to eight Tucker restaurants. Unlike previous mask distributions, these masks are not for the restaurant employees, but for patrons who come in and may not have a mask to wear. A much larger mask distribution effort is in the offing for August and in the months ahead.

It will be a long road to emerge from this pandemic, but Tucker is banking on doing its part through getting everyone involved in the #maskmovement