city o f du bl i n by Rebecca Myers Photo courtesy of City of Dublin
Finding Relief at the Rec Dublin Community Recreation Center staff keen on service
When 5:30 a.m. rolls around, Kim Ridout isn’t waking up – she’s already at the gym. During the past year and a half of the pandemic, Ridout has found some critical support from what she dubs “the 5:30 a.m. crew,” made up of the dedicated staff of the Dublin Community Recreation Center. The recreation center, known as the DCRC, has become a sanctuary for Ridout – an “escape” from her on-demand life as a mental health therapist. “All day, I listened to people talk about the trauma of COVID, the deaths, the depression, all of the things – homeschooling – everything that’s come along with COVID,” she says. A Dublin resident for the past decade, Ridout has been a member of the recreation center for years, but she says the pandemic, as it did with many facets of life, transformed her experience with the center. A weights and cardio person, Ridout recalls that she didn’t often talk to recreation center staff or other regulars before the pandemic. That changed for her as she witnessed the enthusiasm from the fourperson “5:30 a.m. crew” once operations were back online. Her experience felt personalized, with the crew engaging with patrons, all while focused on keeping the DCRC hospitable and safe throughout the COVID-19 restrictions. “They created the same experience,” she says. “They greeted us, they laughed, they talked to us, they kept it clean. They just made it really personal for everyone. “For me,” Ridout continues, “it was like, ‘Life was going to return to normal again. There is laughter in the world.’ Because that’s not the part of the world I was seeing.” 14 • December 2021/January 2022
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After getting to know the early-morning crew members, Ridout recognized how each person faced their own struggles born from the pandemic but admired how they could make it feel like “life was still good” at the recreation center. “I feel like that commitment, no matter what was happening in their life, to keep it healthy and safe so that we could continue to come to work out was a huge thing. I think that was a great gift that they gave us.” Recreation Resiliency Eighty-six days. DCRC administrators remember the exact count from March 14 to June 7, 2020, when the recreation center closed to comply with state orders set to limit the spread of COVID-19. It was a stark change for many industries, yet the DCRC didn’t stand idly by. Tracey Gee, Director of Recreation Services, says during those weeks her staff members partnered closely with Franklin County Public Health to update their operations and kept the public’s well-being at the forefront of their work.
“We rewrote every operating practice we have with COVID in mind because we knew at some point we’d be reopening,” Gee recalls. “We tried to figure out what’s the best way to open to keep people the safest, and that meant different things for different demographic groups.” Staff reviewed how to better serve older adults who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 and kept up communication with recreation center members about the new restrictions. Gee notes the DCRC reopened with enhanced sanitizing measures, reduced capacity rules and other practices aimed at patron and employee health. “I feel optimistic because we’ve been doing this for so long that we’re ready,” Gee says of the last year since the center’s reopening. “We know what’s coming: If we need to make adjustments we can make them, and we know that we can keep people safe. … People should feel confident and comfortable coming back.” As a DCRC goer, Ridout notes she missed her routine, so she went to feel out the center once it reopened. She says her hesitancy cleared because of “this huge www.dublinlifemagazine.com
