Free “Murray the Moose” Masks for Cook County Schools

Felix Johnson, 6, of Grand Marais, models his “Murray the Moose” mask. Photo courtesy of Carah Thomas-Maskell

Tourism associations giving back to local community

With kids returning to school this past week, the tourism associations of Cook County are providing free “Murray the Moose” children’s masks to all elementary students. Visit Cook County (VCC), which represents the county’s tourism associations, has already distributed nearly 5,000 of the masks in the past year to visitors and local organizations, and now have an additional 1,000 on order for distribution to local schools.

Visit Cook County Executive Director Linda Jurek has been one of the driving forces behind the community’s successful pandemic response and efforts to protect the health of locals and visitors alike. “From the beginning, we listened to our local health- care providers and worked with them and our local leaders to provide clear, consistent guidelines to our local business community and visitors. The importance of masking was made very clear from the start,” said Jurek.

To promote the practices of masking and social distancing, Visit Cook County launched the popular

“One Moose Apart” campaign and provided free “branded buffs” and “Murray the Moose” masks to local lodgings and businesses, for them to give away to visitors. 20,000 buffs and 5,000 children’s masks were distributed in the past year. “It was a way for businesses to kindly ask folks to mask up, and it really worked. You saw those blue buffs everywhere,” said Jurek.