Letter: Please let parents watch their kids play
I’m reaching out to appeal that we reopen the gymnasiums, ice arenas etc. for parents to watch their kids play winter sports.
As I see the local social media posts of skiers standing side-by-side waiting in lift lines, as I see planes full of people coming into the valley, as I see restaurants open for people to be sitting without masks, Walmart, Home Depot, Costco full of people, what’s different about sitting and watching games? Even your Vail Daily lists event after event locally that is happening currently. Please open the high school venues for parents to watch our kids play.
For some of us, our kids are seniors. We have a senior on the high school hockey team. He’s been playing hockey since he was 4 years old. This is his senior year! He won’t be playing hockey in college — he’ll play baseball. This is our last opportunity to watch him play. I’m sorry, but watching on TV is just not the same. I’m sure you understand that.
Dobson arena is nearly 30,000 square feet! If you go onto the Huskies Hockey page on Facebook, and watch Friday night’s game video, you can see the empty stands! Plenty of room for social distancing. We could watch during pre-season! What’s different?
Don’t tell me it’s part of the state’s classification or the county’s classification of the status yellow, orange, red, or whatever. Instead, please explain to me why sitting distantly in a 30,000-square foot arena is any different than social distancing in a restaurant (where you can take off your mask while seated), or in a store full of strangers wearing masks. Ironically, we can go to a restaurant, sit side-by-side with different families, take our masks off, and stream the game and watch it that way. Where’s the sense in all this?
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Please, please, please let us watch our kids play in person. Don’t take that away from us.
Therese Flaagan
Eagle
