At the risk of ruffling a few feathers, I want to make my stance on this absolutely clear. I hate wearing a mask for 9 hours a day as much as the next person, but it would be both highly irresponsible and incredibly inconsiderate to lift the mask mandate before service workers (and honestly, all individuals in our community) actually have an opportunity to receive full vaccination.
Let's stay patient -- and stay masked -- so we can finish out this marathon safely TOGETHER!*
Below is a copy of the letter we sent to Mayor Strickland.
Dear Mayor Strickland and team,
Thank you so much for your diligence, calm, and data-driven decision making this past year as our community has tackled challenge after challenge.
I am writing on behalf of myself and my staff to express our strong support of continuing the local mask mandate at least until the vaccine has been widely available to all residents for a suitable period of time.
At Muddy's, we have voluntarily operated using "Stage 1" guidelines since reopening in July in order to do our part to keep this community well and slow the spread. I’m incredibly proud of my team for their diligence-- role playing covid training games to identify areas for improvement, severely limiting their own social interactions, maintaining social distancing guidelines in the workplace (which is very difficult in our industry!), and continually practicing "generous authority" with our guests (enforcing mask wearing, addressing people directly when the mask does not cover both nose & mouth, etc)... and doing all this with good cheer, patience, and care.
We take the safety & wellness of our guests and each other seriously and we hope very much that the city will continue to offer much-needed and appreciated backup in the form of city-wide mask requirements until we ALL have the opportunity to benefit from a vaccine. If you'd like more information or thoughts, we are happy to offer them and, as always, willing to step up and help in any way we can.
Thank you so much for your time,
Kat Gordon, owner of Muddy's Bake Shop
*********
*PS. Thinking of this as finishing the marathon together reminded me of one of my favorite pics of my dad and youngest brother. They ran the St. Jude half marathon a few years ago... my brother ran faster, but then waited toward the end so that he and Dad could cross the finish line together. Let's do it, Memphis!
