HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/8/2020 Item Public Comment, Cammidge
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Louisa Cammidge <
To:E-mail Council Website
Cc:Mimi Phene-McKellar
Subject:PUBLIC COMMENT- save our children
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December 7 2020
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to the SLO city council as an advocate for our children. During this COVID pandemic, I feel that is
the children who remain without a voice. They have had their in-person school taken away, their friends taken away, and
their birthday parties have turned into sad drive-thru affairs. My school age children spend 8 hours a day cooped up in
their rooms, while my husband and I continue to work as essential workers outside the home.
What gets them through these challenging weeks is the idea of doing outdoor sports. My youngest had to quit
Puma swim when that was canceled in early March. We have been so grateful that tennis courts were allowed to open,
and we found a new socially distant sport that she has started to excel at. My oldest has done gymnastics since she was
5, and joined team at age 8. Now, at 14, spending her first year in high school remotely has been extremely challenging.
She was so happy when Mimi at Central Coast Gymnastics was able to get dispensation to open in July and has been
there three days a week ever since. Things may have changed, with mask wearing and outdoor workouts, but she has
been supported and challenged there, which has helped her mental health greatly (and the rest of our family).
I urge you to continue to allow Central Coast Gymnastics to offer gymnastic team members a safe and
supportive environment to practice. When the CDC announced an increasing rate of obesity in children this year it made
me extremely frustrated. How can our children stay active if their sports activities are all canceled, the playgrounds shut
down and they spend hours indoors on their computers doing school work? How much else can they sacrifice to help
keep the elderly and immunocompromised safe? It is our children that are the future of this country.
We always talk about what is an essential and non-essential service these days. It’s okay to walk around Home
Goods looking for Christmas figurines, but not okay for my daughter to work-out in a huge air hangar-type building with
massive open doors and practice her round off back tuck. It’s okay to check out the new iPhone inside the Apple Store,
but not okay to sit at an outdoor table at Andreini’s, with a cup of coffee, to take a moment for ourselves.
I urge you, very kindly, to please think of our children and what they have sacrificed so far without complaint.
Allow them a safe environment, like Central Coast Gymnastics, to stay active and healthy. Your future depends on it.
Sincerely,
Louisa Cammidge, DVM
Medical Director at VCA South County Animal Hospital
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