Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Jill Sperling

COVID-19 CANCELLATIONS

Cancellations of local gatherings and events surge as province enacts tighter restrictions

Mar 13, 2020 | 5:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — As the spread of COVID-19 widens, B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer is seeking a mandatory order to prohibit any gatherings of 250 people or more.

The result is a flurry of cancelled and postponed events.

With a congregation of more than 1,000 people, spread over three services, Kamloops Alliance Church has made the decision to cancel physical weekend gatherings and live stream the services instead.

“We’ve just said, ‘go to peoples’ houses, where you can watch on-line and engage in that way’,” said Lead Pastor Chris Throness.

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Throness says the church is hoping to be a source of encouragement amid the fear surrounding COVID-19.

“We’re going to be rolling out some different initiatives over the next two weeks for sure, just prayer prompts and scripture prompts for peoples own personal journeys but also in that encouraging mission,” he said.

Kamloops United Church is also considering the needs of the community. Rev. Dr. Michael Caveney says the church will increase its supports to people who will be unable to get out during the pandemic.

“Our concern, of course, is if people are self-isolating, older people, more vulnerable people might not have food, supplies,” he said. “We do have a team, a pastoral care team that regularly looks after that.”

With a smaller congregation, the Kamloops United Church isn’t planning to cancel its Sunday worship service.

“We are encouraging people, of course, to have distance in contact,” Caveney said. “For example on Sunday when we pass the peace, we now bow. We don’t come into physical contact with anybody.”

The PIT Stop, which is a meal program located at the United Church, will be take-out only. Other gatherings, such as the Cowboy Festival and certain IDays events at Thompson Rivers University have been cancelled. Classes are scheduled to continue given the class sizes are smaller than the 250-person threshold.

The Kamloops Hindu Cultural Society wasn’t comfortable with holding its HOLI Festival event scheduled for Saturday (March 14).

The event would involve physical contact when colour is applied to peoples’ faces.

“We decided to cancel it, because community first and it’s going to happen every year, Holi Festival, if not this year maybe next year we are going bigger than this one,” said Mukesh Sharma, president of the Kamloops Hindu Cultural Society.

Western Canada Theatre is planning to go ahead with its next production, Cafe Daughter, as it will be held at the Pavilion Theatre, which has a maximum capacity of 150 people.

The production of Mini Pops Live scheduled for Saturday at the Sagebrush Theatre will be postponed until fall.

The Kamloops Symphony is putting upcoming events on hold as it waits for more information.

“Our next major one is a fundraising event that is supposed to be happening on April 3 and then our concert on April 11,” said Kamloops Symphony Executive Director Daniel Mills. “At this point both of those events are multiple weeks from now, and so what we’re doing is carefully monitoring … what the predictions are as to when it may or may not be over and trying to make educated decisions about that.”

Mills says the Kamloops Symphony is taking the health of musicians, crews, staff and patrons very seriously.

“Unfortunately, a cancellation of a concert in our world means that none of the musicians would get paid and, of course, we would have to refund the ticketing,” he said, “and so it’s a very difficult decision to make depending on what plays out, but again, safety is our number one priority and that’s what will trump everything in regards to decision making.”

At this point, Barb’s Used Book Sale, which is scheduled to begin March 21, is expected to take place.

The Boogie the Bridge event, which is held every spring, is up in the air, with a board meeting scheduled for next week.

Boogie the Bridge founder Jo Berry says the Boogie training clinic will not be cancelled.

“You know how we love to do our high-fives and everything,” she said, “we’re going to have the social contact at a minimum, ask people, ‘please don’t come if you’re sick,’ which we already do anyways.”

With no way to predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will end, more event cancellations could be on the way.