Local business hoping this is last interruption

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — The impact that the COVID pandemic has had on local businesses has left everyone wanting a backto-normal approach.

And as restrictions lift on restaurants, gyms, retail and entertainment halls next Monday, they inch that much closer to brighter days ahead.

For Faith Monaco at Impact Health and Fitness Centre, the past 21 months have been a roller coaster of ups, downs and pivots. She’s hoping Monday, January 31 will bring renewed hope that the lockdowns will soon be behind us.

Faith Monaco at Impact Health and Fitness Centre.

“I’m really excited to be opening again,” she told the Sun last week. “We want to get back on our feet and stay on our feet.”

Faith opened Impact Fitness at 88 Talbot Street East in Leamington in the summer of 2019, mere months before the world shut down.

The progress she made in those months before the pandemic came to a screeching halt in March, 2020.

Since then, there have been openings and closings and more openings and closings.

“It’s more frustrating opening and closing,” she said. “There’s more to it than just locking and unlocking the door.”

She feels she’s been very fortunate to hold onto her staff of 10 through all of the ups and downs of the past two years.

“I haven’t lost any staff through this,” she said. “They are all rock stars.”

She’s thankful to those people who have stuck with her as customers too, as she tries to navigate this unprecedented stoppage in everyone’s lives.

“It has delayed a lot of my plans,” she said. “But I’m hopeful that this is it.”

She’s spent the past few weeks trying to keep members aware of all that’s going on and as always, she’s up to date on all COVID protocols.

“We are safe,” she says. “And we’re ready.”

She has classes planned for next week already and is hitting the ground running on Monday with morning and evening fitness classes scheduled, with a 10-person limit for now.

While booking appointments has been a stressful by-product of working through a pandemic, she’s optimistic that the restrictions will ease over the next few months and a bright future is ahead.