The objective is to ensure all children have access to a face mask to help protect them from COVID-19, and to also raise awareness about the importance of wearing a mask.

“Too many times I’ve walked around and it saddens my heart to watch kids with dirty masks, with no masks at times,” .

Joining UofL and Game Changers for the campaign are Louisville Metro Government, Jefferson County Public Schools and the YMCA of Greater Louisville. All 10 YMCA locations have drop-off sites for people to bring clean and unused masks.

YMCA CEO Steve Tarver said the effort is important to help students avoid missing out on social, emotional and academic pursuits during the global pandemic.

“And to think that the lack of a mask could be a barrier for a child to stay safe or get back to school at the appropriate time, that’s unthinkable, and it’s unacceptable,” . “So together, we can eliminate this barrier.”

JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio added that the Masks for Kids effort is essential to ensure access to masks and, eventually, a return to normalcy.

“The more people wear masks, the quicker we get back into school (and) the quicker we get back to what we call a normal life,” he told the CJ.

Doctors and medical students from UofL donated the first 5,000 masks to JCPS to kick off the campaign, the Courier Journal reports. However, less than 24 hours after the initiative was launched, 132,000 youth-sized disposable masks for JCPS students. The donor is expected to be revealed during a press conference on Monday.

Check out this video from the campaign:

Last month, the YMCA of Greater Louisville recognized Wallace for her work teaching, along with Marian Vasser, UofL’s director of diversity education and inclusive excellence. The two women were honored as Black Achievers by the organization, along with 25 others in the community.

Wallace, who earned her master’s degree and PhD from Cornell University,  joined the Department of Political Science at UofL in 2006. She is the first and only African American woman to earn tenure and promotion to full professor in her department.

Among her many achievements, Wallace has been selected as a faculty favorite, as the recipient of the Anna Julia Cooper Teacher of the Year Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, and the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Outstanding Instructional Design.

Wallace was recently selected to participate in the Council on Postsecondary ����ֱ�� and was one of 19 people selected to participate in the American Association of Blacks in Higher ����ֱ�� annual Leadership and Mentoring Institute.

Vasser joined UofL more than 25 years ago as a temp in HR and then worked her way through Physical Plant, the Controller’s Office, the Career Center, the UofL Football program and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. She eventually chose to follow her passion and pursue a job in social justice, working as the diversity program coordinator in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Vasser went on to earn her master’s degree in Higher ����ֱ�� Administration in 2015 and, in July 2016, she was named to her current role. Since, she has conducted hundreds of diversity training workshops all over campus and throughout the community. Her training is used by JCPS, the Center for Women and Families, the Kentuckiana Prevention Network, UPS, Humana, Leadership Louisville and more.  

The YMCA of Greater Louisville’s Black Achievers program held its 40th annual celebration of achievement on Feb. 23. In addition to Wallace and Vasser, the ceremony also recognized high school seniors who have completed the program, as well as the Youth Achiever of the Year – Alyssia Leach, a senior at DuPont Manual – and the Adult Achiever of the Year – Dawne Gee, Wave 3 News anchor and UofL alum.