Maple Lake shows strength in face of COVID-19
By Brenda Erdahl
After some disappointing news that the St. Patrick’s Day Festivities would have to be cancelled, Saturday, March 14, this week citizens of Maple Lake have rallied together offering support, free meals and a sense of community.
All over Maple Lake’s online Community Site are offers of help. People are offering to deliver groceries to high risk residents who don’t want to leave their homes. Others have offered to watch children during this time when the schools are closed.
The Maple Lake Bowling Alley will offer free lunch to any child in K-12 grade that needs one until they go back to school, or the state shuts down restaurants. Their message on the Community Site says they will have pick up orders available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. that will include a choice of burger and chips or ham or turkey sandwich and chips. Call 320-963-5555 to order.
Maple Lake started to feel the impact of the world-wide COVID-19 Pandemic in earnest late last week when officials made the difficult decision to postpone the 43rd annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and festival.
On Thursday, March 12, two days before the big celebration, Parade Organizer Nick Pawlenty was alerted by the City of Maple Lake that Governor Tim Walz was considering banning public gatherings of 250 or more.
“I got a call from The City. . .they said we should be looking at delaying or cancelling our event because of COVID-19,” Pawlenty said.
Then on Friday, March 13, Gov. Walz declared Peacetime Emergency and officially urged no gatherings of more than 250 people.
“Our No. 1 concern was the health and wellbeing of our community members, parade participants and everyone else who visits our town,” Pawlenty said.
Festival committee members planned to meet this week to discuss the possibility of rescheduling the popular event.
“We hope to have it this year, but we have to keep an on everything and see how things shake out here,” Pawlenty said.
School closures
More disturbing news came Sunday when Gov. Walz and Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker appeared on T.V. and announced that all Minnesota public schools will close to students starting Wednesday, March 18 with the plan to resume instruction on Monday, March 30.
To read the entire article and get more info on Covid-19, subscribe to the Maple Lake Messenger today.