COVID-19 Safer At Home Update

As you many know, on Monday, CP decided to keep all of our locations closed through April 24, per Governor Evers’ Saferat Home order. It was a tough decision, but after talking as a staff and reaching out to some of our clients, we felt this was really the best action to take for the safety and well being of everyone.

Speaking of that, I know a lot of people are home right now, and it might be getting a bit old. How many more movies can you watch, how many more puzzles can you put together? I know I had the realization yesterday of what am I going to do to keep busy at home for a month? I have work, which helps, but what about at night or on the weekends? Luckily, I have two teenagers who, for the most part, keep themselves busy, but even they get bored and need something to do outside of online learning. It was a lot more overwhelming than I thought, really.

But then I thought about our clients – the people that CP serves every day. The infants, the seniors, the kiddos who are medically fragile, those who have compromised immune systems. It’s so easy to forget why you are staying at home when the reason may not be sitting in front of you. Well, I’m here to remind you that you are not only staying home for our clients, but for the countless others who may not be as strong as you and I are to fight off a virus like COVID-19. For them, this is a very real and very scary situation.

I did some checking in last week with some of our team to see how everyone was doing, and the reports were pretty good. Lots of folks are finding a new normal - a new routine as we ride out all of this. But there was certainly an underlying theme: they all miss coming to CP and seeing their friends. Pool patrons have shared on Facebook on how they miss coming to the pool to take their class and see people they know. Families are missing their weekly visits with their therapist and interacting with other families. And in speaking with a lot of our staff last week, I know they are missing being at CP, too. But everyone also understands the importance of keeping everyone safer at home.

My take away from that is, if we are going to be apart for at least a month (for some of us longer), then we should all be doing our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19. You know the drill – wash your hands, sanitize everything, practice social distancing and only leave your house when you absolutely have to. I get it, being cooped up is hard and as the days start to get nicer, it will be more difficult, but please – just stay home. What’s a few weeks, when the end game is being able to open the doors of CP again and welcome back all of our clients?

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to make sure we are staying connected with our community using Facebook. I’ve been calling on our staff to share photos and videos about what they’ve been doing while we are closed. Now I’m talking to our team specifically: Now that we’ll be closed through April 24, I’m hoping I can get some of our staff to share videos on what they would have been doing in class – maybe a cooking video, showing a craft project, or something with music or exercise. Maybe its tips on staying mobile while at home, sensory activities or something else. Maybe its just encouraging words you want to share with our clients to keep them motivated. 

I know it’s hard to get in front of a camera, and I’m not asking for anything fancy or perfectly edited. Just be yourself. I think it would mean a lot to our clients to see you again and would make the connection to CP just that more real. Just email me and we can talk about ideas. Okay, enough of that.

Just make sure to do all you can to keep yourself and our communities safe through all of this. It’s amazing how simply staying at home can make such a big difference. If we all do it correctly, we’ll be back at CP before you know it. Back riding bikes down the hallways, jumping in ball pits, playing on the playground, working out in the pool – and safer and stronger together. Stay well #saferathome.