The City of Milwaukee Health Department is giving away free masks to help residents mask up and fight the spread of COVID-19.
The masks, which are available in blue or white, feature a design by Fred Gillich of Too Much Metal. They say "City of Milwaukee" and have the Health Department logo.
The masks are made of CDC-approved materials and have a slot into which a filter can be added, says Gillich.
Also the health department says that the masks can be picked up for free at more than a dozen locations around the city, including health department centers (Northwest, 7630 W. Mill Rd., and Southside, 1639 S. 23rd St.), Miller Park testing station and at the Too Much Metal Showroom, 207 E. Buffalo St., third floor, Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m.
The same site has information on the city mask ordinance, answers to COVID-19 questions and CDC mask information.
Gillich says that he was tapped to make, “enough (masks) for everyone in the city.
“I had no business this summer,” he added. “This was a real lifesaver. I'm super honored and thankful to work with the City of Milwaukee Health Department's program to bring free masks to every Milwaukeean."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
