For more than 160 years, the YMCA in Canada has been committed to building healthy communities. As we continue to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this long-standing tradition is taking on new meaning.
Our Peter Gilgan Family YMCA, at 410 Rebecca Street, has offered to become a host vaccination site for Halton Region Public Health for South Oakville. Our large and modern facilities are uniquely equipped to provide safe, accessible, and efficient neighbourhood vaccination locations.
We see this opportunity to use our spaces in a concrete way to advance our common goal of building community health by accelerating the protection of our population through vaccination. The sooner we have a vaccinated community, the sooner we can all resume the activities, routines, and gatherings that we all miss.
Your local YMCA might evoke images of swimming lessons, pick-up basketball, day camp, and fitness classes. YMCA facilities are some of the most beautiful, state-of-the-art wellness centres with large interior spaces where people have been gathering and exercising for decades.
Sadly, these incredible assets have been sitting dormant in most communities for the past 15 months. The halls that used to ring with the sounds of children laughing and bouncing basketballs have become eerily silent. Worryingly, the charity connected in some way to one-in-seven Canadians is struggling to find a way through this pandemic and is facing difficult financial circumstances.
Many YMCAs tried to reactivate their Health, Fitness and Aquatics operations in the fall, adopting enhanced standards for cleaning, disinfection, physical distancing, and other safety protocols. But the truth is, these large facilities were designed to serve thousands of people – the economics of limiting attendance to 10 or 20 people was not viable. Moreover, it is apparent and understandable that many people are just not ready to return to group physical activities until they feel personally safer and protected from COVID-19. This underscores the pressing need for more progress in vaccination and the eradication of community spread.
The YMCA wants to be part of the solution. We want to welcome people back into our facilities – even if only to be inoculated for the time being.
We are also committed to balancing the needs and interests of our YMCA Members and community. We have been working on some creative ways we will be able to return to in-person programming while the vaccination clinic operates. Over the next few weeks, we will focus on supporting the set-up of this critical priority that we think is in the best interest of everyone involved.
As this phase of the pandemic reactivation unfolds, the YMCA will continue to find creative ways to safely and gradually deliver some in-person programs and services while ensuring they are compatible with the vaccination progress of our community. We will also continue to innovate and offer our licensed Child Care programs, along with a range of virtual fitness program options, outdoor activities this summer, and more registered in-person programming, including YMCA Summer Day Camp.
We trust our members and participants will support us in this endeavour. We are counting on you to return to your YMCA when this phase of the pandemic is over.
Your YMCA is asking for your support as we try to do our part to advance community health and for the endurance of the YMCA as we strive to remain relevant and responsive to the most pressing needs in our community.
If you would like to donate to the YMCA, please visit ymcaofoakville.org/donate.