Eric Kuhnau shares his perspective on working at the Y during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eric currently serves as the Safety & Risk Director.
This week two years ago, we were occupied with trying to learn and understand this new illness sweeping the world known as COVID-19. At the time, my supervisor Dave and I were working to comprehend what the spread of this disease meant and the impact it might have on our operations at the Y. So much of it all is just a blur at this point. I look back at messages and information from the early days of the pandemic and shake my head at how little we knew and how much has changed since then. I remember presenting to the C-Suite and Leadership teams saying, “We don’t know exactly what we’re in for, but it is going to be bad.” Little did we know just how bad.
Then the closures and lockdown hit. We thought that after a couple of weeks of being shut down, we'd be back to normal. We learned about how to clean and sanitize EVERYTHING using microfiber cloths and chemicals that seemed to neutralize every microbe. Some of us transitioned to working remotely from home, crash courses on how to do remote meetings via Zoom, and we learned how to estimate how close six feet was from others.
We were trying to maintain what we do at the Y and serve our communities in a different and safe way in the midst of still learning and trying to figure out what was safe or not. I remember watching the lockdown in Italy and the people gathering on their balconies to sing, play music, exercise, to share a connection with others. We scrambled to set up partnerships to keep some essential services going; our shower program, the Child Care service for the front line workers, and how we would keep connected to our members and each other.
I remember hearing someone say, when walking through hell, you just have to keep going, moving forward. That has been my mantra since March 2020. Keep going. Keep moving forward. A wonderful teammate of ours, Bev Eredia, used to say something similar when we worked together many years ago at Korum: “This too shall pass.” Like life’s seasons, things do pass.
Through furloughs, emotional moments, enjoying a “summer break,” and eventually getting the recall to come back to work, we all have our stories of the challenges we faced personally and professionally these past two years. How we kept going forward even when it was not clear how we would. As Y folks, I think it is just our nature to accept the challenges we face and push onward, that is our strength and courage. Our One Y philosophy, moving forward, together as one.
When I got the recall back to work, I remember my wife asking me what I was going to do and where I would start. I told her I would do everything I can to get our Y through this, as many people back to work at the Y as possible, while trying to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible. That is what I have tried to do every day since late August 2020. Trying to keep up on ever-changing mandates and guidance on what we can and cannot do, vaccines and being able to unmask, only to have to mask up again. Doing my part to help support you in the work that you do. I am not saying our COVID challenges are over. You are probably tired of hearing my pleas on vaccinations and doing the basics (I am tired of hearing me myself!), but we will keep doing what we do best, serving and supporting our communities despite the challenge.
Through it all, I have continued to have the opportunity to work with some amazing people and overcome many of the tests we have faced as an organization. While it has just been me holding down Safety & Risk, I could not have done it alone, not without you and your contribution to our greater good. Let us keep walking forward together.