After a staff member tested positive for COVID Tuesday at Betty Ehart Senior Center, staff at White Rock Senior Center assumed responsibility under direction of Chef Michael Mason for feeding all home delivered meal recipients. Remaining employees from Betty Ehart today tested negative. Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen

By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Executive Director
LARSO

To give you a visual of this COVID virus, it is a ripple on the pond after the stone is tossed, which starts a process.

I have always been vocal with my administration staff that if we have a positive test, we will be fully transparent. The reason is, how could the community trust us if we were to appear to hide something important? It was always a simmering pot on the back burner. On Tuesday of last week, the pot came to a full boil.

A COVID positive test of an employee at the Betty Ehart Senior Center set one of many COVID plans into action. The staff member knew that he or she had made a choice that put others at a risk. The person was beyond apologetic and equally in angst for their friends as they were for their own family. The week would have to unfold.

LARSO, which runs the Betty Ehart and White Rock senior centers has written many COVID policies, which guide us for future events unknown. The time dedicated to that and a host of new rules would serve us well. Six weeks ago, we implemented a mandatory sign in, temperature check and single point entry for anyone who enters the building. It served as a guidepost for notifying anyone that we had an hour to leave the building.

Our first calls are to the County and the State as we operate our programs for them. They launch their own plans as I alert employees and the Board of Directors. The press release was launched before I could hit send on the computer. The time would come later for more details, the clock was ticking on our hour. All food preparations would be moved to the White Rock facility, who performed heroically. We would notify food recipients for the day.

I was elated that we recently put meal bags in the hands of every home delivered meal recipient affected that day, compliments of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Elks Club. You are thankful for previous laid plans, which return to benefit you later. No one would go hungry. Once we were out, there was plenty of work to be done, but most staff were able to accomplish their work from home.

Did we do everything right? No, but there was no harm, just inconvenience for a day or two. We did learn a lot and after a deep cleaning by the staff of Los Alamos County, many could return to the building Thursday. Several staff were sent for COVID testing, and the staff at the local Public Health Office were wonderful. After five very long days, all results were negative. It was important to have members tested, no matter how small the potential exposure.

The two biggest lessons for me were to go with my gut. While I may implement decisions that make others unhappy, we came out unscathed by the incident. Our contact tracing was on target, which could help people sleep better that night. A few additional handouts or checklists will be created, but we had a plan, we followed it and it worked well.

The biggest lesson, when scientists tell you NOT to gather with people “outside of your bubble”, listen to them. That stone can ripple far further than you can imagine. As Christmas is upon us, don’t be selfish and gather, you could regret it deeply. Christians can get it, good people, rich people, poor people and kind people. The saying I hear lately is while our boats may be different, we’re all navigating the same storm.