City of Pitt Meadows has announced a winter camp to help parents deal with the phased return announced by the province in response to the rising concerns of the Omicron variant.
On Wednesday, Dec. 29, the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry said that only children of essential workers and those with special needs will be returning to class on Jan. 3 and 4 along with staff while the rest will return on Jan. 10. This extra time is expected to give schools some time to assess the impact of the variant and put in place new safety measures as needed.
Following this announcement, the city of Pitt Meadows decided to offer a special winter camp.
“Our Rec team is here to help, we recognize this short of notice leaves parents with the challenge of child care. We will be offering a special edition Winter Camp for 6-10 year olds, running Mon. Jan. 3 – Fri. Jan. 7, 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m., $34/day, individual daily registrations available,” said a post from the city.
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To register, people can go online at www.pittfitandfun.ca. Starting Thursday, people will also be able to register by calling 604-465-2470 between 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Staff will also contact those parents whose children were registered in the next week’s Kids Gym afterschool program, which is now cancelled, and will offer them the option to register for this new camp.
The move by the city saw some mixed response. While some parents were relieved to have this option, some others thought the response from the city was “foolish” and “removed the reason to not have kids in school”.
ALSO READ: B.C. schools to have a staggered re-start in January; essential workers’ kids return first
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