By Alex McCuaig

Coping with COVID

Hatters finding ways to cope with COVID

Jun 4, 2020 | 4:21 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – When life hands you a global pandemic, sometimes you need to use it as an opportunity to dance.

For Carole Sproule who, along with a couple of friends, that means taking the opportunity on Thursday to practise line dancing down at the Kin Coulee bandshell.

“It’s a lifesaver,” said Sproule, who like many Hatters, has been finding different ways to cope with a pandemic that has left few lives untouched. “You’re out here dancing on a beautiful day, fresh air, doing all the things you’re supposed to.”

That includes ensuring only a small group to make sure to allow for adequate spacing.

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“We respect our spaces and we feel great,” she said.

Ten-year-old Noah Palmer and his brother Johnny, 7, say they’ve missed hanging out – at least in-person – with their friends.

But they’ve been occupying their time riding bikes and even creating dirt jumps in the bush.

And as they rode around the recently reopened skatepark on a day they’d usually be in school, that was one of the aspects of the pandemic that they really didn’t mind too much.

“That’s the good part,” said Noah. “And we don’t have to do that much school work than normal. ‘Cause at school, you do six hours of school work and we only have to do an hour of work now. So it’s really good.”

That might have some adults pining for a time machine but Terry Valeriorte says he’s been using his time under COVID-19 restrictions to learn Italian and take guitar lessons.

And there are a couple of things he hopes linger after the pandemic threat is over.

“On result from the pandemic is we realize we’re all in this together, we’re all equal and we need each other. We need each other as a community,” he said.