YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The Mahoning Valley is one of the worst hit areas in Ohio when it comes to the coronavirus crisis.
- Youngstown Live, the Mahoning County CVB, released a video message on social media giving people some encouragement during a very difficult time
- As of April 22 in Mahoning County, there have been more than 600 COVID-19 cases, more than 200 hospitalizations, and 57 people have died from the virus
- The Canfield Fairgrounds are remaining open for people to walk around
“This is one of those deadly viruses that are out there and it has no race, no age, no gender of who is affected by it. And this is one of those reasons why we have to do our part,” said Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown.
Brown shared that post to his Facebook page — a page where he also shared how the pandemic is affecting his family after he lost his 94-year-old aunt. His family can’t have a traditional funeral.
“There’s not going to be the handshaking at the funeral, there’s not going to be hugging, there’s not going to be a repast,” Brown said.
Brown will also be joining Governor Mike DeWine’s minority task force that looks at the disproportionate number of African Americans impacted by the coronavirus.
“The mood in the Mahoning Valley kind of echoes that in Ohio in which we’re, you know, hopeful things can change and I feel like everybody is getting a little stir crazy and ready to get outside and get back to normal,” said Bergen Giordani, marketing and sponsorship coordinator for the Canfield Fair.
The Canfield Fair is described as the largest county fair in the state of Ohio on its website. The website shows several events either postponed or canceled. Yet, these days, there’s a lot of activity at the fairgrounds. There have been food drives organized here to help local residents and people are taking advantage of the spacious location to escape from indoors and have a safe place to walk.
“There was a feeling in the area that the parks were a little crowded, because when you think of a park, its a narrow street, there’s forest on both sides and there’s traffic, vehicular traffic, whereas at the fairgrounds, we’re fortunate that we have the paved paths, but we don’t have forests, we have open fields for when the concessionaires are in. So it’s very easy to social distance,” said Brown.
Soon, the fairgrounds will be home to drive-thru testing. It’s become a destination where people can focus on health in more ways than one.
“The Mr. Rogers quote is to always look for the helpers. And I feel like we’ve seen a lot of the helpers and we at the fairgrounds are trying to be helpers ourselves,” said Giordani.
