Chris Hindoien, the mayor of Choteau, is helping out his community by giving up his June salary to help provide masks.
He teamed up with Teslie Mills, who owns Black Sheep Custom Apparel, and they created 185 masks to hand out.
Hindoien says wearing masks is the right thing to do: "You know, the whole thing is such a controversy. We were hit, you know, we had an outbreak here with 15 active, we have 15 so far of which only four are still active, so hopefully we're on the downhill slide."
He also said, "I've had great conversations with folks in the medical field, in the medical industry, even in the pharmaceutical industry, call me, and we were chatting about it. And I want people to understand I'm not doing this as the government. I'm doing this as a guy in Choteau, where we have a high number of our community members would be considered high-risk due to their age and to the factors. And I'm not willing to get one of those people not to wear a mask."
Hindoien continued, "There were emotions out there, raw feelings about the people who got infected, and we're dealing with this, with the virus. We got to remind people that nobody's out there actively seeking to contract Corona or COVID-19. It happens and once it happens, the best thing we can do as a community is support those people, reach out to them, if they need their mail, if they need groceries, if they need their yard mowed, we will rally the people around to get that taken care of. Don't be blaming these young kids who want to have a prom or things along those lines. Blame is doing us no good. We've got it. Let's deal with that, and let's move on."
If you're in Choteau and looking for a mask, you can give him a call, and they also have folks donating masks that fit a little differently so you can breathe through your nose and not fog up glasses.
