Tag: COVID-19
With just a few days left until the reopening of parkrun New Zealand it feels like we really are making excellent progress and, after fifteen Saturdays without a single parkrun anywhere in the world, this weekend we can all celebrate a great step forward.
Everyone has worked hard and waited patiently, and we can all be proud to be part of the wonderful, global, parkrun family.
Across the other 21 countries that host parkrun events, things are also changing rapidly. Since last week, for example, we’ve seen significant relaxations in the Netherlands and Australia. Of course, it’s not all positive though, and in the last 24 hours we’ve also seen localised lockdown in part of the UK.
We continue to follow global developments very closely, and every morning meet (virtually) to discuss where things are, what needs to be done to support parkrun communities right now, and what needs to be put in place so that we can reopen when the time is right.
We’ve held those meetings every single working day since lockdown started, and it’s very clear that, so far, things are moving in a positive direction and every day is a day closer to being back in our parks and open spaces, together.
However, we know that reopening our events (or keeping them closed) at a given time will be controversial in the eyes of some members of our community. Not because they’re wrong and we’re right, but because with a global family numbering seven million people there will be healthy differences of opinion.
We will each interpret information and risk differently, and faced with the same challenges we will each form different conclusions. As we look ahead therefore we expect that there could be a period of time where many people feel we should be open, when we’re not, but then a time when many people feel we shouldn’t be open, when we are. During that time we will be collaborative in our decision making, transparent with our reasoning, and take responsibility for our actions.
Thanks, as always, for your incredible parkrun passion.
We are getting through this, together.
Tom Williams
Chief Operating Officer
parkrun Global
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