The Year of COVID

Last month was the oneyear mark since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID has impacted everyone in several different ways, and the Watonga Republican thought it would be a good idea to hear from community members to see how it affected them and what things lie ahead.

Residents, business owners, and school and city administration all chimed in to give us their thoughts on this past year.

Carla Flynn, Opportunities, Inc. Executive Director

COVID has had a major impact on Opportunities, Inc. The first major impact was that we are considered essential because of the Blaine County Food Pantry so we had to stay open.

I did make the decision to lock the doors and stay available via phone, email, or by having clients stop by for applications, etc.

Trying to keep my staff safe was a major concern. We purchased a temperature scanner and implemented a mandatory mask requirement which is all still in effect.

We also received a grant from the Cares Act. It has increased our client base but trying to get all of the required paperwork and documentation to make sure it is COVID related has been a hard task.

Our Weatherization program has taken a hard setback. When COVID hit we had to stop production at once and it has been a task trying to ramp back up and make sure that all precautions are taken to keep both staff and clients safe.

We have shut our thrift store down because of the improving here in the next three to four months.

Lori Graham, Watonga Elementary School Principal One year later, we are

One year later, we are more relaxed as a school staff about getting the virus.

We have been able to be in school at the elementary which is how it is supposed to be.

We are happier when the students are there. Now with the vaccines, we feel even better.

It has been a stressful, hard year and our teachers deserve your love and appreciation. We are turning the corner now, we hope!

Reanna Goodnight, Watonga resident

The last year has been very crazy! It started with Watonga Public Schools closing for the rest of the year due to COVID-19.

It was a very emotional thing because I am a mother but also because I work at Watonga Elementary.

That same week my father had a heart attack and thankfully he was OK, but it was scary nonetheless.

My husband being a firefighter and truck driver was "essential” so he was not a part of quarantine like me and the kids were.

The children were really the ones who struggled the most. Our three kids just wanted to be with friends and be normal kids.

We had to protect them and a big part of that was staying home.

I ordered everything online, and it was crazy! I learned there is literally anything and everything online!

My husband worked as much as he could, but sadly work slowed way down. It was very hard but we were thankful he didn’t lose his job as so many did.

One thing I can say is we virus and that has a major funding resource for the agency to have non-restricted funds.

We plan to re-open soon but being closed for a whole year has had a major impact on funding.

Due to COVID, we have seen an increase in the need for senior nutrition. Opportunities, Inc. has started senior nutrition days for several communities, and we take the food to the seniors to keep them safe instead of them coming to us.

We do this once a month in Watonga, Canton, Longdale, Okeene, Clinton, Butler, and Taloga.

We have worked really hard to keep the food pantry full and have enough to take to the seniors.

We hope to get donations to purchase a walk-in freezer and a generator to run the building when the power is out so that we can stay operational.

Larry Mitchell, Watonga City Manager

I can tell you a year ago, when I first started working for the city of Watonga, everything was locked down.

The city hall building was locked. The County courthouse was locked. All the businesses were closed.

We went through a period of time when we weren't sure if we were going to be able to put enough police officers and firefighters on the street to respond to emergencies because we had several of our employees in quarantine or had family members that were in quarantine.

We managed to survive that experience and things have much improved. Everybody’s had their shots and we think we're back in business.

Things are looking up. Generally speaking, the community's going to start all had much-needed time with our kids and families!

I would face time with my best friends because we could not see each other in person. It was hard, and being out of school and work was even harder!

When school started this year, it was different because of COVID-19 restrictions, but we made it.

The students were so happy to be at school and it showed us all how strong kids are and how resilient they are as well.

I hope it only gets better from here on out!

Bobby Allen, Geary Mayor

It's never really slowed us down. We never did close our doors. We just kept going like normal.

My thoughts were if somebody’s coming in and hacking, coughing, and running a fever you don't need to be around them. Just tell them to leave.

We went on the ride with business as normal. We didn't slow down. We're almost back to normal.

We're going to open our swimming pool this summer. We're going to go ahead and have our fair this fall. I don't see a problem with [COVID] coming back with all the inoculations and everything that's going on.

Jenny Jameson, Owner of ODDS and ENDS

You can see the difference. People are appreciating small towns more and people are just loving it.

They're still wearing their mask, which there's the whole consideration for the health of others.

It’s a whole different attitude. A year ago it was an ‘I don’t care’ attitude and now everybody cares.

I think it's because they were all cooped up and they know if they don't take care they're all going to be cooped up again. As far as small towns are

As far as small towns are concerned, we're seeing our small town still booming. They're actually coming from the city to shop here in our town. I've seen that here lately.

They're coming through and they say, ‘we kind of feel safer in these small towns than we do in the bigger towns… Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we're safer in our smaller communities than we are in bigger communities.’

Out here, we can be ourselves, but we know that if you're sick, people will say, ‘go home, we'll take care of you.’ That's what you get in small towns.

You don't get that in the bigger towns. You're just a number or you're just a face.

Out here, they know your name, your kids, and everything. That's what's good about a small town.

Looking ahead, people are going to start appreciating their lives, and they're going to take more care, but they're not going to be afraid to take a gamble.

They’ll spread their wings a little bit but say, ‘hey, we can do it, but we have to be a little bit safer about it.’ I think that's what we're going to see

Ṫhey're still going to give you that small town deal kind of like, this is home and when we go out of town, it'll still feel like you're going into strange territory.

Todd Glasgow, Geary Public Schools Superintendent

The key issue for us in handling the pandemic situation was being flexible since no one knew what to expect exactly.

We tried to develop plans from the CDC and local health officials, and [we] tried to keep our students engaged as much as possible.

[I]t was a struggle and presented many challenges at first. [I]n the beginning last year, being instructed by the SDE to do nothing for the first two weeks after spring break put us all in a weird place for expectations.

Then there was no accountability piece to follow up with for the last nine weeks.

This put our students in a huge vacuum of doing nothing and having no expectations about doing any type of quality schoolwork since nothing was graded and no one was prepared to move into full-time virtual instruction.

Compared to this year at this same time, our students have had almost a full academic year going through the trials and tribulations of the daily online virtual experience.

The biggest thing accomplished for us has been, we were able to do some preparation for it.

This helped all of our stakeholders understand what was going on with how we were going to deliver instruction to all of our students.

This was and is not the best method, but at least we can move forward and then try to fill the gaps this summer after spring assessments and as we get closer to normal for next year.

Everyone is tired and exhausted from worrying about it, we have teachers who care as do all the communities in the area, and they want the students to be prepared for the next grade level, work experience, college, or whatever is the next step for their child.

We must do everything we can to set them up for success.

We look forward to next year and hopefully getting back to as normal as possible!