Community members,
Things are moving fast.
- Wednesday morning, March 11th, the University of Rochester announced that they would be moving the entire campus to online classes for the rest of the semester.
- That same day, RIT extended their Spring Break by an extra week and also announced a shift to online classes.
- On the 12th, Gov. Cuomo banned gatherings of over 500 people in NYS.
- Yesterday, President Trump announced a National State of Emergency.
- Just a few hours ago, Monroe County made the decision to close schools, effective Monday, indefinitely, in response to the second confirmed case of COVID-19 in our county.
This move is going to put a huge strain on all of us Rochesterians as we figure out how to navigate the rest of our work, home, and hobby/activity lives.
Officially, Rochester Parkour is in agreement with these decisions and these moves. Limiting physical exposure in high-traffic environments is a responsible choice to help limit the strain on our local healthcare system.
With that said, at this time, we feel like we’re in an interesting middle ground within the service industry. Despite all of our recent growth over this last year, given our class schedule, the gym still only sees 40 visits on average per day. At any point in time, there are fewer than 30 people in the gym.
Yesterday, we updated everyone on our cleaning procedures.  At this time, we are choosing to remain open and to continue being the positive outlet that we are for our families. In addition to the guidelines and requests that we outlined in yesterday’s update, we are also choosing to take a more aggressive stance on ‘in-class’ hygiene. Objects and bars are getting disinfected before and after classes. Coughing, sneezing, (let’s be honest, with kids) nose picking, thumb sucking, or any other form of personal interaction that is known to escalate the risk of viral transmissions will result in our instructors asking the student to take a quick hand washing break. We are asking that parents of kids stay during class to ensure that proper hygiene protocols are being met.
Additionally, given the challenges outlined in this post, RocPK is hereby temporarily suspending our 24 hour cancellation policy. Should you decide for any reason that you or your family should not attend gym services, please let us know through text, phone, or email and one of our staff members will work with you to reschedule your visit for a later time.
Given how quickly and rapidly the situation is evolving and changing, this decision is not final and we will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis. Should the situation in our county escalate or we decide to temporarily suspend or cancel services, we will let everyone know with as much lead time as possible through our blog here, newsletter, and our various social media outlets.
In conclusion, it’s important during stressful times like this to remember that we are all in this together. The term being used right now is “social distancing”, but what they mean by that is “physical” distancing. More than ever, it’s important for us to remember to use our thoughts, voices, and actions in ways that help alleviate the stress of those around us, rather than add to the seemingly endless pile of negativity.
Thank you for being the awesome people that you are. We’ll get through this together.
Sincerely,
Charlie, Nicole, and all RocPK Staff
