COCHRANE— A Cochrane woman is looking to unite the town during the COVID-19 pandemic with a special initiative through social media.
Jennifer Spackman, a mom of three boys has founded the 'CochraneStrong' Instagram page. The page features photos of families on their porches in isolation due to COVID-19. Families get their pictures taken, submit them to Spackman through direct message on Instagram and she posts their photos on the page with a bit of information about the family. The end goal of this, Spackman said, is for her family to create a mural that can be donated to the Town of Cochrane once the pandemic is over.
"I just love all the porch portraits and I thought it was a great thing that the whole town could jump on board with," Spackman said. "I thought it would be really cool for everyone to see a mural of families sitting on their porches once this is all said and done. We're going to collect as many photos as we can and my husband and I are going to make a board and hopefully donate it to the town so they could hang it up at the RancheHouse or another visible spot in Cochrane."
Spackman said she has not started putting the mural together yet, as she's still waiting for the remainder of the photo submissions.
"We're hoping to have it all done by June, given that the self-isolation period is over by then," Spackman said with a chuckle. "Then we were going to set it up on a big canvas and go from there."
"I thought it would be neat to see a mural representing our community at a public place to remind us that even in the worst of times, we were able to stick together and have this beautiful community united."
Spackman came up with the idea a few weeks ago to start a page on Instagram in order to unite the community and currently has 55 posts of family portraits.
"We've got a bunch of submissions and I request through other channels to remind people to send in their photos in ... we're hoping to get to at least 100," she exclaimed. "We just want as many pictures as we can get in order to make a big mural showing off our community pride."
Not only does Spackman hope this initiative brings the community together, she's hopeful that it can bring a few moments of joy during an otherwise frustrating time.
"I think it's wonderful. It gets everybody out and they feel good in the pictures," Spackman said. "It's something to look forward too and it's a happy memory in an otherwise unfortunate situation.
"It's got a lot of people feeling happier and it's forcing out so much positivity. I think it just shows that families in Cochrane are saying 'hey we're still here and we're all in this together' and I think that's really important during a time like this."
