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The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Nelson Mandela
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JANUARY 20 |
2022
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Delta gyms and fitness facilities back in business
Starting today (Jan. 20) adult indoor individual and group fitness or exercise activities are allowed with increased safety protocols and capacity limits MARK BOOTH
m b o o t h @ d e l t a - o p t i m i s t .c o m
The doors to Delta’s gyms and fitness facilities will be open again starting today (Thursday) following the lifting of public health orders that had kept them in the dark for nearly a month. It was back on Dec. 19 when Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced a number of new orders would soon go into effect as the COVID-19 Omicron variant case numbers began to surge. All of them were extended Tuesday (Jan. 18) with the lone exception being fitness venues. They get to re-open with some new restrictions added included masks being worn at all times, workout machines being at least seven square metres apart and pre-bookings for drop-in, individual workouts. Linda Mallard had heard the various news reports the closure order would likely be extended. The owner of Tsawwassen Wellness Centre Palates kept a positive outlook right up to Tuesday’s briefing as she watched it live
and all alone from her Tsawwassen Springs location. “Everything pointed that it wouldn’t work. Everything pointed to we were going to be closed indefinitely. I just held my ground, you just wait and see,” smiled Mallard. “We are totally excited and we are ready to roll. “For us there really is no change. We just carry on. We already had all the protocols in place. My number one core value is safety and that’s what we operate from. I have clients in their 80s. I really just entrusted that the provincial health orders would be for the betterment of the community. I made the choice to stand with that and our clients will be safe.” Mallard admitted it has been a difficult journey since the start of the pandemic. The latest closure marked the fourth time since March 2020 that there has been partial and full re-openings – all adding up to a significant financial hit. “It has been tough. We went from having no debt two years ago to the cost of this being substantial.
MARK BOOTH PHOTO
Linda Mallard, owner of Tsawwassen Wellness Centre Palates, gives a big thumbs up following the announcement Tuesday that gyms and fitness facilities can re-open.
That has been tough, but we have drawn on everything government has given us, which has been great,” she added. She said she’s taken care of her staff to the best she can including pre-paying them as they waited for their unemployment payments to
arrive during the latest closure. “The grant money and financial support didn’t come very quickly,” Mallard continued. “I’ve got a good team. We have people who have been here since we opened and some for 15 years. We are pretty ingrained into the
community too. There’s been lots of great support from my clients as well. I think they were feeling my sadness and being lost the last couple of weeks. I feel that love and support as well.” What has kept her going is working in the community she has called
home for the last 25 years. “It’s just being a service to the place I live and love. A lot of the independently-owned businesses live here and raise their families here, so there is a deep connection to the culture that’s here and small business is the culture too,” she said.
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