MY PERSPECTIVE about the stay-at-home order, Traditional word-of-mouth com-

I reached out to organizations munication can’t happen in this

RENEE MAHAFFEY
that serve the black community— pandemic. To reach young people,
the Urban League, the African we’re utilizing social media, using

HARRIS
President and CEO, Center for
Closing the Health Gap
Our organization has been
around for 16 years, working
to eliminate racial and ethnic
health disparities in Greater
Cincinnati. When someone asked
Dr. Fauci why there are disparate
COVID-19 incidences and outcomes
among black people in the United
States, he said, “How long do you
have?” Because the factors that
put us in this place are systemic
and have been here for some time.
From the moment I heard
American Chamber of Commerce,
the NAACP, Councilmember Jan-
Michele Kearney, and Roosevelt
Walker, president of the Cincinnati
Medical Association—and we came
together to develop a website to
provide trusted information on the
pandemic. Things can be confusing
when there’s conflicting informa-
tion and when issues aren’t under-
stood. We have weekly town hall
meetings on Zoom and Facebook
Live, with experts answering ques-
tions from members of the black
community, and we do interviews
with different experts on Radio
One and in The Cincinnati Herald.
We’ve created a hotline for seniors
in Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing
Authority buildings so they can
find out where to get meals, masks,
and answers to their questions.
the mechanisms they use. TikTok
is a new one to me, but we’ve just
done one showing kids that, when
you walk out a door, you grab a
mask. When you see kids talking to
other kids about wearing masks,
that’s when activation happens.
We now have more than 30
organizations that have joined
in, making sure they could be a
part of this fight. I serve on the
minority strike force for Governor
DeWine, and he’s asked about
some of the collaborative things
we’re doing. There are many
organizations serving marginal-
ized populations in Cincinnati. The
pandemic has shown that we must
work together. That has to be what
comes out of this. I’m optimistic it
will happen. —AS TOLD TO LINDA
VACCARIELLO

In a time when staying apart is the XAVIER UNIVERSITY VIRTUAL BOOK CLUBS The

CONNECT safest thing to do, strengthening our

bonds and supporting each other takes
Faculty and staff person-
ally called all 4,500-plus
Mercantile Library’s lively
book discussions moved

FOUR a little more effort. These individuals undergraduate students to
and organizations made that effort. answer their questions.
—AMANDA BOYD WALTERS COMET CONNECTOR BUS
Mason City Schools sent a
decorated bus (wearing a
mask) to students’ homes
to celebrate birthdays.
ZOO BLOOMS Following
virtual tours of the zoo’s
spring tradition, staff
delivered blooms to nurs-
ing home residents and
hospital workers.
TRUCK BED SING-ALONG
TOUR Music teacher Bryan
McCartney took his show
on the road across North-
ern Kentucky so neighbors
could sing and dance at a
safe distance.
THE DAD INITIATIVE
INSTAGRAM PROM Tyran
Stallings’s DAD Initiative
helps kids learn life skills,
and to support the class of
2020, he enlisted his son
Tariq (DJ Riq) and put on a
virtual prom.
VIRTUAL STORYTIMES Lo-
cal bookstores and librar-
ies including Blue Manatee,
Joseph-Beth, and PLCHC
took to YouTube, Facebook
Watch, and Instagram to
read to our littles.
online to serve readers.
CAMP DELIVERY Wave
Pool Gallery supported
their neighbors—and our
creative community—by
distributing weekly food
boxes that also contained
an original piece of art.
PORCH POURS Creative
agency Agar set up a vir-
tual happy hour movement
that went national, with a
playlist, cocktail recipes,
and a hashtag.
CINCINNATI CARES The
online volunteer connection
helped businesses launched
through MORTAR reach
out to experts for virtual
coaching.
THE CHILDREN’S THEATRE
OF CINCINNATI Streaming
past performances and
offering week-long virtual
camps, TCT continued to
engage young audiences.
DING DONG DITCHING
SENIOR BASKETS Florence
mom Shauntae Godsey col-
lected donations, packed
up baskets of goodies,
and dropped them off for
nearly 1,000 Northern
Kentucky high school
graduates.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEREMY KRAMER

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