COVID-19 Update

Over the past weeks, the Waltham Boys & Girls Club (WBGC) has paid close attention to concerns around Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Our top priority is always to keep our clients, staff, and volunteers safe, and we are staying in close touch with other agencies and with Massachusetts and national guidelines to ensure that safety. We want to keep you informed of our current planning and will continue to do so as the situation unfolds further in the weeks ahead.

What WBGC is Doing
At WBGC, we are taking extra care regarding the cleaning and disinfection of all of our facilities and have ensured that hand-washing and hand-sanitation supplies are easily available. We’ve recently added new hand sanitizing stations in our lobby, games room and upper hallway, and plan on adding an additional one in the auditorium this week. We are also monitoring all of our programming and ensuring that our practices promote safety, including in the way we serve food. During this time, we will not have any communal food during our groups where people help themselves. We will only serve our dinner and snack programs based on our USDA safety and sanitation guidelines. Additionally, we are assessing whether or not some of our planned large group activities will run as scheduled or if we will need to postpone or cancel some of our events.

If we find we need to make any changes to our scheduled programs and events, these changes will be communicated via our website walthambgc.org, email, and our social media pages.

What You Can Do
We ask that all members of our community be conscious of recommended guidelines:

  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use hand sanitizer if soap/water is not available.
  • Take care of yourself if you are sick. Stay home to avoid spreading to others.
  • Avoid touching your face-particularly your eyes, nose, and mouth.
  • Avoid physical greetings like hugs, kisses, and handshakes. We utilize elbow taps or toe taps with the kids! It’s a fun way to mix it up.
  • If possible, cough and sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard it. The Club will have plenty of tissues in every program area for anyone to use. We will have individual packs for kids to take with them if needed.

The CDC recommends that for people at higher risk for serious illness from COVID-19, because of your age (over 60) or because you have a serious long-term health problem, it is extra important for you to take actions to reduce your risk of getting sick with the disease.

Swimming Pool Use: Using a properly chlorinated pool is not currently considered to be a risk for the virus to spread. The WBGC constantly monitors our disinfectant levels of the pool including the chlorine levels to ensure they are in the acceptable range according to the Health Code. As a reminder members using the pool should not share towels and should take showers before and immediately after using the pool.

The WBGC has an important responsibility to care for our members and our community and we will continue to focus on health and security. We will remain vigilant regarding the evolving situation, will adapt our practices as appropriate, and continue to keep you updated.