Dear YMCA of Montclair Community,
I hope you and your families and friends are well during this holiday season.
I want to take this time to talk about where we are in the COVID-19 pandemic and the health of our YMCA community.
Like last year, the Thanksgiving holiday — where families traveled and gathered, and college students returned home — precipitated a rise in COVID infection rates. Our state has gone from yellow (moderate levels of virus) to orange (high levels of virus). And like last year, we can expect with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays that the infection rate will continue to rise until sometime after mid-January.
Throughout the pandemic, we have told you that safety is our priority. Our Y follows the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and New Jersey public health guidelines and abides by all Montclair Department of Health requirements. We continue to distance our exercise equipment, rigorously clean our facility, and limit class size. Our mask policy is that if you are unvaccinated, you must wear a mask in our facility. If you are vaccinated, wearing a mask is a personal choice.
This summer, we saw cases rise in response to the Delta variant. And now this winter, Omicron — a variant that is highly transmissible — is causing breakthrough infections. Recently, the state of New Jersey issued new guidelines encouraging vaccinated persons to wear a mask in indoor settings. We have required our staff to wear masks for their safety and yours. We strongly encourage our vaccinated members to wear a mask at our Park Street Y during this rise in cases, but we will not require it, at this time.
In the coming weeks, if you would like to temporarily take advantage of our hold policy, please call our membership team at 973-744-3400. We will be here for you in 2022.
Getting the COVID-19 vaccines + booster is the best way to avoid serious illness resulting in hospitalization. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, or if you are sick, stay home.
We appreciate your care and respect for your fellow Y members as we continue to work together to maintain the safest environment possible.
On behalf of the YMCA of Montclair Team, we thank you for being part of the Y community, and we wish you a safe and joyful holiday and new year.
Buddy Evans
President and CEO