Danville’s newest city commissioner is determined to help Danville stay clean and healthy.

Jennie Hollon began distributing posters to businesses and other buildings around Danville promoting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, mask wearing and hand washing on the afternoon of Dec. 29. She said it was her idea, and as a former health educator and a private small business owner of the Nutrition Center, which her family has expanded throughout four locations in Kentucky, she wanted to encourage business owners and the public to follow CDC guidelines since Boyle County is a red zone when it comes to COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people each day. According to data from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the county currently has the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in the state.

Hollon said in the first two days, more than 20 small businesses “stepped up to make an enthusiastic commitment to mask, social distance , sanitize, and train their staff to do so consistently, all while educating customers.” About six people picked up the posters at the Nutrition Center as well. Hollon calls the community of businesses that have put up the posters “Boyle Tough.”

“The goal of the signs was to build unity and community, all while cheering one another on to remain diligent in following CDC guidelines,” Hollon said in an email. “Citizens need to be determined to not waiver from proven guidelines. We must remain diligent.”

Hollon said inititally, 50 posters about following CDC guidelines were produced.

“Several businesses mentioned that masking was an issue, so with the quick help of Minuteman Press, we redesigned the front door poster to highlight mask wearing,” Hollon said in her email. “Fifty additional posters were made with the new design the very next day.”

She said it’s important to remind people of guidelines to keep themselves and others safe now, nearly a year since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S., because the rate of infection has never been higher in the county. Hollon said COVID-19 has hit her personally as well — she has had two family members hospitalized with the disease in the past few weeks.

“It was really hitting home,” she said in her email. “I really felt an urgency to be proactive.”

Hollon hopes the posters will be beneficial to local businesses, as well, if people follow the guidelines on the posters to try to control the spread. She said she hopes all 100 of the posters will be up and gone, posted at local businesses, in the next two weeks, after which she anticipates more will be ordered. She said the posters have not spread outside of Danville into other parts of Boyle County, but she hopes they will with more awareness of them.

She said one of the things she wanted to bring awareness to is the importance of washing one’s hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water and wearing a mask over both the nose and mouth. Many people wear masks under the nose, she said, which defeats the purpose. Overall, she said the effort is about community and encouragement and encourages others to uplift each other in their own ways.

“In the spirit of Christmas and the New Year, we can continue to ‘love our neighbor as ourself’ by our actions,” she said in her email. “Pray for our community and for those who are hurting or have lost loved ones. When you go out, mask and distance and support businesses that do. Most importantly, we all need to encourage one another. How? For me, it was signage and education. For others, it may be checking on neighbors, giving to food pantries or sending goodies and notes of encouragement to front line workers and first responders. When was the last time you thanked a teacher or a grocery store worker? A little encouragement can go a long way.”