For the last several weeks the State of Minnesota and CDC have provided guidance and orders that have caused disruption for many communities in trying to slow the spread of CoronaVirus infections. This social distancing has shown significant success in Minnesota and many communities, but the disruptions to social organizations and communities like ours continue to help keep everyone safe.
On Wednesday, the Governor of Minnesota announced an extension to the stay-at-home order leaving it in place until at least the 4th of May.
The MNFurs events in April were already cancelled based on the prior guidance of avoiding gatherings of 10 persons or more, and now we are looking forward to the May events. West Metro meets take place in a restaurant, and as such is closed to dine-in. Though the West Metro Meet on the 11th of April is cancelled, we hope to still hold the one currently scheduled on the 30th of May. Oval meets often have dozens of attendees so the meet on the 19th of April has been cancelled.
Right now the State of Minnesota and the Three Rivers Park District have cancelled and suspended all events, reservations, and permits through the 4th of May. Our Spring Picnic is currently scheduled for the 9th of May, but at this time it is likely there will be some social distancing recommendations in place when it comes time for our picnic. Since our picnics tend to have 300 or more attendees, it is highly likely that either the State of Minnesota will have gathering restrictions in place or the Three Rivers Park District will cancel our permit and reservation. While it hasn’t happened yet, we feel it important to let our community know this is what we think is the most likely outcome.
Our community, members, friends, and partners are what defines us. Though we all wish we could gather and meet together to help one another through this hard time, we want to be transparent and honest with you about the realities of what we are seeing for our events. We will come back and resume our events as soon as it is safe, but until then we want to be upfront with the continued delays and cancellations of our events and activities.
Please feel free to keep in touch using our Forums, fondly look back at photos from our past events, and continue to support each other.
-Minnesota Furs-
Information from the CDC:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
State of Minnesota Updates:
https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
