Residents of Saskatchewan have always been known for their resilience and innovative thinking, and this is becoming more evident now as we all deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning how to adapt is one of the talents now coming to the forefront, and indeed will be the case as we go through our all-too-brief summer and head into the fall.
If there is anything that we all learned from the big lockdown in March, April and May due to COVID, it’s that this is much too drastic an action to impose on the entire economy and activity of communities and the country in general.
Thus, as it’s clear the pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future, measures are being taken to make sure life can still go on while we also deal with the impact of the virus on society.
One example is in relation to the upcoming municipal elections. For the City of Weyburn, there will be electronic vote-counting used, which will help minimize some of the need for going through all the ballots, and mail-in ballots will be available also.
They were used in the 2016 election, with around 50 electors choosing to use this option. This year, there is a good chance there will be many more than that who will choose to mail in their ballots, particularly if they feel uncomfortable about going out to cast a ballot at a public polling station. This way, they can consider their voting choices and take their time to make their decision before sending in their ballot.
Another example are sports organizations, which are slowly becoming more active and giving people more opportunities to be involved. In Weyburn, minor ball and lacrosse have been holding practices, and starting up next week, minor soccer will also be out.
In the world of hockey, it’s less clear, but as board members heard at the annual meeting for the Gold Wings girls hockey team, they will adapt.
No schedule has been set yet, but they have plans for possibly a 30-game season, and the team intends to have the midget girl hockey players here for school, and for their development as young women as well as hockey players on the ice.
Once the Red Wings are able to set their plans for the season, they too will adapt to the situation at hand as we all deal with the fallout of the pandemic and its impact on our daily lives.
This fall, schools are set to reopen, although higher education bodies (such as the University of Saskatchewan) are electing to be online for at least the first semester. There will be different ways of handling things as schools resume educating our young people, and it will certainly take some adjustment on the part of the students and teachers. As we hear a lot these days, we’ll get through this, together.
