Local business owners share COVID-19 experiences

When the COVID-19 economic shutdown was ordered in March, St. Albert residents were told to simply stay at home and not leave the house except for essential work or shopping trips. While the rules may have sounded simple, the message was difficult for many local businesses to swallow.

Skip ahead four months later, when Stage 2 of Alberta's reopening plan kicked into full gear. All of a sudden, massage therapy, movie theatres, team sports and libraries were allowed to start up again.

It was a symbolic light at the end of a months-long tunnel for some business owners in St. Albert, many of whom had to close down or shrink their operations because of the pandemic.

The St. Albert Gazette caught up with three local businesses to learn about what it was like to reboot in a pandemic.

Phoenix Taekwon-Do

Standing inside Phoenix Taekwon-Do's new studio on Carnegie Drive, a memorable movie tune rose above the sounds of chatty children – the Mission: Impossible theme song. Then, the explosive sound of laughing and running feet.

"Sounds like they're just about to start the ninja Nerf battles," said Theresa Stanley, senior instructor and executive director, smiling.

These Nerf-gun wars and obstacle courses are part of the local club's summer day camps, and it's all about getting kids moving again. That sentiment is the same for everyone who comes to the club to learn and practice kickboxing, sparring, patterns, jumping spinning kicks or other taekwondo techniques. 

"Physical activity and mental health are so intertwined," Theresa said.

When the club was forced to close in March, their 750 members no longer had a place to practise and train. Phoenix's 2020 Fire and Ice Championships was also cancelled due to restrictions, a major annual competition and fundraiser for the gym.

"We had no clue if we were going to survive this because our members had to stop paying their membership fees, so that income was gone. The tournament, which is a great fundraiser – gone," said Craig Stanley, gym founder and eighth-degree black belt. "So, we thought, what can we do?"

Theresa said classes and training went online "right away" via Facebook Live and Zoom to keep connected with their members. Understanding the circumstances, the club's coaches offered to volunteer their time to help teach.

"They did 12 weeks straight of online classes, four times a week, just out of their own support for the club," she said. 

Another huge source of support came from the members themselves. Despite having the option of cancelling, about 200 of their members decided to keep paying their monthly fees "because they wanted to make sure we had support," Theresa said. 

As devastating as the pandemic was, the shutdown gave the club time to move in and build out their new 8,500-sq.-ft. space with donated hardwood flooring, panel mirrors, T-shirt printing press and other equipment. With bare feet on the floor, taekwondo studios are meticulously clean to begin with, Theresa said. Reopening just meant they had to sanitize and clean the gym throughout the day.

So when restrictions relaxed, Phoenix started welcoming some members back with small summer camps on June 8. Then when Stage 2 launched about a week later, it was full speed ahead for the studio with the restart of kickboxing, the Shadow Warriors program, sparring and more.

Doing training online helped bridge the gap, but it fails in comparison to having people together at the gym again. 

"Those kids were so happy, so happy to be out," Theresa said. "They've been cooped up for three months so they come here and just play hard, and they were so excited to be around people. There was so much joy in the building."

Love Within Pregnancy Massage & Women's Wellness

For Lorraine Winslow, owner and registered massage therapist, closing down the Love Within Pregnancy Massage & Women's Wellness clinic was heartbreaking. 

"That decision and everything after that was probably the toughest time in my life, even compared to my first year as a mom," Winslow said.

"I didn't know what was right, I didn't know what was wrong. I had moms calling me crying, and I'm crying ... it was more about them than it was about paying the bills without any income. That wasn't the big deal. It was the sense that we weren't there for them."

The spa offers pregnant moms and women a chance to relax, to take a breath and time for themselves. For her clients, Winslow said these services are essential, and COVID-19 has put a spotlight on their importance.

"(Pregnant women) have been home, too. They had to do homeschooling, or they didn't know if their husband was going to be in a hospital room when they were delivering their baby," she said. "So now, it's more about listening to them with the different kind of worries that they're going through and reassuring them, because they're going through a lot."  

Aching hips and lower backs can be tamed with a water table, which makes the person lying on it feel like they're floating on a cloud. Massages work out muscle tension and improve blood circulation. Cupping massages done with silicone cups stimulate the lymphatic system to drain excess fluids and toxins, pull blood into muscles and stimulate the nervous system.

Not only does massage therapy relieve physical ailments, it supports mental health too – especially during the pandemic. Women come to her clinic to relieve pent-up anxiety and tension, take a nap or simply confide in another woman. Reducing the stress on pregnant moms is a huge part of that, as well.

"It's just coming back into that environment where it's dedicated for them – especially as moms, we have put ourselves on the back burner. So we need to take care of each other, and sometimes they need to be taken care of," Winslow said.

So when Love Within was finally able to open back up on June 15, the same day as the clinic's two year anniversary, they welcomed clients back with open arms, and face masks. It was obvious their clients missed their massage therapists just as much as they missed them, she said.

"We love what we do, but it was really, honestly, truly incredible seeing the support we got from our moms," Winslow said, emotion swelling in her voice. "I had some really rough days, and just reading their messages and knowing that they were thinking of us was really incredible."

Driving Miss Daisy 

Their age alone places seniors in the high-risk group for COVID-19, but many still need help getting to the grocery store, doctors appointments or other essential needs.

That's where Adam Vranas comes in. Since 2013, he's been the owner of Driving Miss Daisy, a driving service in St. Albert that offers services to improve the quality of life for seniors and those with disabilities.

The pandemic kept people locked inside their homes, especially seniors, for their own safety. But ridership felt the pinch as a result, Vranas said. He went from having around 80 regular trips a week to one or two over the last couple months. 

"Most of the trips I was doing during the three months before everything started opening up is taking people to the retina clinic in Edmonton to get injections – you can't do that at home," he said.

Vranas made sure he had thorough procedures in place, including wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, wiping down all the high-traffic touch areas like seatbelts and door handles after every client, and putting up Plexiglas barriers between the front and back seats in their vehicles. 

When restaurants and hair salons began reopening again, there was still a bit of anxiety over whether it was safe for seniors to go outside again. But over time, riders started to come back. Now, Vranas does between 10 to 20 rides a week.

"People were happy that we were around to (drive them), that they could have a service where it was just them in the vehicle and not have to worry about sitting beside other people on public transit," he said. 

"My clients are all seniors, and some of them were stuck in their senior's residences forever and not able to come out, not even to sit with their family. So it's nice when they're finally able to go out and enjoy the fresh air." 

He said he enjoys having those casual conversations with clients as he takes them to where they need to go. They appreciate the chance to talk with a familiar face, too. 

"There are people that we took every week. Every Tuesday, they'll go get their hair done or their perm set, or they'll go get their groceries. It was something they looked forward to because they've created a good rapport and a good relationship with us," he said. 

"It's just nice to have that friendly face and someone friendly to chat with every week."