Castle Pines City Leaders Give Out Free Face Masks
CASTLE PINES, Colo. (CBS4)- Castle Pines will become the first city in Colorado to distribute masks to residents free of charge. City leaders, including council members, will gather in the former Safeway parking lot Friday morning to distribute the masks.
They will hand out 12,500 FDA-approved masks, allowing two masks per person.
The effort began in early April, when city leaders had a conversation with the South Metro Chamber of Commerce. One of the chamber members happened to be selling masks.
"It was a serendipitous occasion," Castle Pines City Manager Michael Penny told CBS4's Mekialaya White.
The city came up with a plan to use public funds to buy those masks.
"The biggest challenge was how many should we get? What are the logistics of distributing these? And making sure that we provide this opportunity for our residents to be as safe as possible when they're out and about and starting to live their lives again in the sense of normalcy," said Penny.
City leaders encourage residents to come take advantage of the free service, even if you already have a mask.
"To be able to do something good in this time of high stress whether that's physical stress, mental stress, you see how many people are going out, into the world. We've been cooped up in our residences for so long and to be able to provide this extra level of safety to keep our residents safe, it's incredibly rewarding," Penny explained.
The city of Castle Pines does not require masks; however, leaders are highly encouraging them, which is why they wanted to give them out.
The event begins at 8 a.m. and will continue until 5 p.m. on Friday, while supplies last.
