THUNDER BAY — The COVID-19 pandemic could change the way many campers spend time at the lake this summer.
Bonfires and beach parties with friends and neighbours may have to yield to the need for social distancing.
Cottage associations in northwestern Ontario and across the province are already planning for the likelihood that activities they have put together for their members for years will not take place.
"The summer of 2020 may well be remembered as 'the summer that never was,' " states a memo from the executive of the West Loon Lake Campers
Association.
Cathy Tuckwell is the organization's president.
She says it's frustrating for everyone not to know how long COVID-19 restrictions will be necessary, but she expects the virus will remain a threat for an extended period.
"Unless there is a miracle over the next few months, social distancing will be a way of life for most, if not all, of the summer," the memo notes.
The West Loon Campers Association annually organizes a broad range of activities including swimming lessons, tennis, pickle ball, baseball, and holiday weekend events.
"The thing that makes Loon Lake very attractive is that we have very robust summer children's programs. We have children and grandchildren coming from all over Canada to visit family and participate in the programs," Tuckwell told Tbnewswatch.
"It's a very social place. Everybody is out and about all the time," she said.
But she added that the kind of activities that typically happen at the lake "make it ripe" for spreading the virus.
Consequently, the executive has decided to put its plans on hold.
It's not advertising for the instructors that it usually hires for its summer programs, as it doesn't want to be in the position of accepting applicants, only to have to tell them on July 1 there's no work.
Tuckwell said that neither do they want to have people arranging their lives around participating in programs that are cancelled after they've made their plans.
"We hope this doesn't come as a shock, but as the step necessary to be prudent and responsible for the safety of our members and the community," said the executive's memo. "Our interim conclusion is that the usual summer we all know and enjoy may not happen this year."
Tuckwell said the feedback from the membership so far has been that "this is the right thing to do."
She expects everyone around the lake – many of whose families have camped at Loon for several generations – to respect social distancing guidelines this summer.Tuckwell referred to a note she received from one couple who've had a cottage at the lake since the 1950s.
"They said 'We look to seeing you walking along the road as we we wave and say hello from our driveway chairs.' "
This summer, the Loon Lake tradition of rotating cocktail hours on neighbours' docks will also likely give way to exchanging greetings from each other's boats, Tuckwell said.
"We will manage, but we will just stop being so close," she added.
