A woman from the Napa Valley has started a campaign to promote mask wearing. This is an excellent idea to raise the awareness, because a lot of people are not wearing one. They don’t care about it, even though it’s highly recommended. Her name is Julia Allen and she believes in wearing a mask to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. So much so that she’s designed a free selfie “maker” and helped make a video to spread the word. She named the project High 5 Together Apart.

The campaign’s mission is “to build community, promote safety by wearing a mask” and social distancing, “practice well-being,” and creating art to keep and share on social media, according to the website.

“It feels really good to be doing something that’s helping others,” Allen said.

Creativity is second nature for this Napa woman, who works as a creative director/designer for her business FOLIA Design. With all of the stress, anxiety and uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak, she wanted to “channel her creative work to give back” to her community, she said.

High 5 Together Apart was sparked by the First 5 Napa Network. That organization invited residents to create posters that expressed “Give High Fives and Good Vibes.” Part of the #TogetherApart national campaign, the initiative coincided with National High Five Day on April 16.

Allen, a member of the First 5 Network design team, created her own masked selfie poster, and then made one for her son. The poster includes a stylized photo of the person wearing a mask and a handprint. “Thank you for staying safe,” it reads.

Neighbors requested their own poster, and people in her community and social network soon joined the movement. Within a few weeks, a team, including Napa resident Brendan Murphy, of Camaleo Web Intelligence, came together to automate the selfie-making using a website, high5togetherapart.com.

“I like the idea,” said Murphy. “People should wear a mask and it’s a good way to remind them.”

“COVID-19 is indiscriminate,” notes the group’s website. All genders, ethnicities, ages, religions, and politics are affected by COVID-19. “Whether asymptomatic or fully symptomatic, many of our fellow humans have lost their lives.”

Supporters are encouraged to create their own personalized art and share it online “to offer encouragement and intention. You’ll unite with our worldwide community and help stop the spread of COVID-19 until a vaccine is developed.”

As of Tuesday, an estimated 100 people from around the U.S. and world have made their own selfie poster.

“It’s awesome,” said Allen.

After that, Allen decided to expand High 5 Together Apart and add a video of people of different ages and ethnicities donning their mask and sharing who they are wearing that mask for.

“It’s not just a fun art project,” she said of the selfie maker. “The video shows the real person behind,” each mask.

Allen said she doesn’t expect everyone to be interested, “but I’m hoping it will appeal to a great number of people and create dialog.”

Even if one person decides to watch or wear a mask, “one person could become two,” said Allen. That effect “is pretty powerful.”

There’s another point to the video, she noted. One of Allen’s friends, who is African American, related a story of wearing her mask in public and being told that she “looked like a bank robber.”

“I’m aghast at hearing that comment,” said Allen. “I’d like to think Napa is a lot more progressive and liberal but there’s still so many layers of racism which I don’t think people realize.”

To that end, the video includes people of different ages and ethnicities, from the U.S. and in other countries, doing their part in helping to prevent the spread of the virus.

“This short video was created as an effort to raise the empathy quotient, in that we all have at least someone in mind who we want to keep safe. Perhaps in that split moment of pause, people could lower their individual stance and possibly see our fellow neighbors with more compassion.”