Employees at area recreational sports programs are working tirelessly to ensure young athletes continue to stay active during the pandemic. Below: Local youth participate in a “Polar Bear” Flag Football clinic offered through Cornelius PARC.
To say 2020 has brought us a new way of living would be a severe understatement, with almost every aspect of life affected by COVID-19 in some form. In March of 2020, when restrictions and new guidelines were put into place, it impacted the Lake Norman community in a variety of ways. But one group of workers and volunteers were forced to get creative almost overnight—the leaders of our local parks and recreation departments, particularly with youth sports. Troy Fitzsimmons, Director of PARC athletics for the Town of Cornelius, talks about the enormous challenges the staff of PARC has undertaken to continue offering sports and recreational programming. “It takes a lot, and the position the Town of Cornelius is in is we are going to follow the Governor’s guidelines, stay compliant, and deliver as much as possible within the guidelines. Our goal continues to be to provide safe programs for citizens.” When the first mandates were introduced in March of 2020, the Town of Cornelius shut down all programming. But then slowly as guidelines were updated, the town carefully re-introduced programming and use of facilities (except playgrounds), by adapting new rules. As summer and fall arrived, playgrounds opened but updates were implemented to provide safe environments for the citizens, such as mask mandates and maintaining six feet apart while using PARC facilities. And when new mandates are issued by the Governor’s office for residents of North Carolina, the PARC staff quickly updates the guidance and information for using the recreational facilities. For instance, when the 10 p.m. curfew was recently introduced, the lighted facilities revised the operating hours and ensured the lights would turn off at 10 p.m. It meant contacting the sports leagues to remind them to finish or suspend play by that time as well. www.LNCurrents.com | JANUARY 2021
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