Hill Holiday Party Mask Game Makes Serious Covid Point

It seemed like Leslie Radcliffe was wearing a flowery, pink and green bandana. It turned out to be a face mask — revealed to make a life-saving point.

Radcliffe revealed her mask as part of a surprise activity at a joint meeting of the Hill North and Hill South community management teams.

The two management teams usually host a joint meeting around the winter holidays. The Covid-19 pandemic made the in-person holiday cheer impossible, so the teams improvised. They asked their neighbors to wear festive clothes to the virtual meeting and bring drinks and face masks of their choice.

“We usually have food, fun and fellowship,” Radcliffe said, asking her neighbors to hold their drinks up to their cameras as well as their favorite face masks. ​“You can unmute yourself to laugh, but try not to talk over me.”

First, Radcliffe asked her neighbors to put their masks on wrong. Radcliffe kept hers above her forehead, as did Alder Kampton Singh and city Health Director Maritza Bond.

Midwife Pamela Delerme wore hers under her chin. Hill South Management Team Chair Sarah McIver wore hers over her mouth but not her nose.

Meanwhile, city transit chief Doug Hausladen (pictured above) wore a black mask around his eyes like Zorro, and Yale New Haven Health Community Relations Coordinator Andrew Orefice wore a ski mask with holes for his mouth and eyes.

Then Radcliffe asked the meeting attendees to put the masks on correctly, over their mouth and nose.

It was a game with a serious public-health message: face masks worn correctly really do help stop the spread of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus that causes Covid-19.

Yet Hill neighbors see others frequenting neighborhood businesses without masks. Jose DeJesus (pictured above with a holiday-themed straw hat) recounted his experience at an auto parts store, where he asked someone to take the mask he had on his arm and put it on his face instead.

“I don’t think I was rude. I was like, ​‘Please, sir, for the rest of us.’ You’d have thought I was asking him for a kidney, he was so irate,” DeJesus said.

The Hill is no longer the pandemic hotspot relative to other New Haven neighborhoods that it was this summer. Still, Covid-19 cases are going up again and Yale New Haven Hospital beds are at 72 percent occupancy with 233 Covid-positive patients, Bond reported.

The two Hill community management teams listened seriously to Bond’s presentation and pivoted to focus on good news, like the door-to-door, Christmas present delivery Delerme helped organize. The alders reflected on a year of innovation for the sake of public health.

“Kudos to the teams for maintaining meetings electronically and keeping the management teams strong. Thank you for a prosperous year, where we have achieved much regardless of the pandemic,” said Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez.