Introduction
The #MaskUpUVic campaign is a collaborative, student-led public health campaign to help keep the University of Victoria (UVic) community safe with free N95-equivalent masks and COVID-19 rapid tests.
It is organized in collaboration with The Canadian Red Cross, which supplies us with free respirators and tests, and several UVic student organizations:
- University of Victoria Students' Society (UVSS)
- Society for Students with Disabilities (SSD)
- Students of Colour Collective (SOCC)
- Engineering Students' Society (ESS)
- Public Health and Social Policy Student Association (PHSPSA)
After the province and university lifted their mask mandates with little warning in spring 2022, masking rates on campus dropped from nearly 100% to under 20%. Many students recognized a need to continue promoting masks and other infectious disease prevention practices on campus. We had hoped that distributing free, high-quality masks along with information on their importance would improve masking rates in classes.
In summer 2022, I learned about The Canadian Red Cross's community mask and test program, which supplies free N95-equivalent masks and COVID-19 rapid tests to registered non-profits and charities. I reached out to UVSS to see if they could apply for the program if I figured out how to store and distribute them. All of the student organizations and several individual volunteers helped with distribution at events and from a central pick-up point on campus. This campaign came together very quickly: it was just 2 weeks from our first meeting to our first distribution event.
As of January 2023, about 5 months since the campaign started, we have reached:
- 276 Instagram followers
- 54 Discord members
- 6120 KN95 masks distributed
- 756 COVID-19 rapid tests distributed
Some of my specific contributions to the campaign are described below.
Project management
I coordinated many aspects of the campaign using tools like Trello and Discord.
Logo design
I created the #MaskUpUVic logo (a smiley face wearing a face mask surrounded by the text '#MaskUpUVic') in several colour, size, and format variations, as well as some basic brand guidelines.
I designed and coordinated the production and payment for #MaskUpUVic logo stickers in a variety of colour variations to reflect the diversity of our community. These stickers were distributed along with our masks and tests.
I also prepared button pin templates so people could colour them in and make their own #MaskUpUVic pins!
Print design
In addition to the stickers and badge templates, I designed and coordinated the printing of flyers, signs, and posters.
Content creation
I wrote content for informational flyers and much of the content for the campaign's Instagram page.