Pond Inlet’s recreation department is distributing these bags to kids who are self-isolating due to COVID-19. Each contains a door-hanging basketball net, juice boxes, mini hockey sticks and other activities for children to play with while they are isolating. (Photo courtesy of Theresa Dalueg)
Games and snacks help Pond Inlet children through COVID-19 isolation
Hamlet’s recreation department handing out the kits, worth about $100 each
The Hamlet of Pond Inlet is giving children who have to isolate due to COVID-19 bags filled with games and snacks to help cure their boredom.
Twenty kits have been distributed so far. Each are worth about $100 and have a door-hanging basketball net, mini hockey sticks, snacks, colouring books, crossword puzzles, supplies for crafts, a board game and more, said the hamlet’s recreation director, Theresa Dalueg.
Pond Inlet — a community in which 60 per cent of the population have received a second dose of a vaccine — has had 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 13 recoveries since Jan. 1. Its schools are open at 100 per cent capacity.
Dalueg said the initiative began about two weeks ago when staff at the local health centre reached out to the hamlet, concerned that children who should have been isolating were leaving their homes to meet with friends.
“The biggest problem is, if the kids are supposed to be isolating at home, you know, they get bored, they go outside and play with their friends, so we’re just trying to limit that as much as possible,” Dalueg said.
“I think the packages helped. We have noticed Pond Inlet’s COVID cases decrease and I hope the fun kits provided the kids some distractions and helped pass the time at home.”
Nunavut’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, said it’s stressful for people to go through isolation, and that it’s no different for children, either.
“Anything that can be done to reduce boredom for children and stress for everybody will help maintain isolation and help reduce the spread,” Patterson said.
He said he thinks the kits are a great initiative.
“I think it’s that community-level resourcefulness [that] is vital to getting through stuff like this,” Patterson said. “Hats off to them for doing that work.”
The local health centre confirms which residents are isolating. Then, every two days, hamlet staff will get an updated list from the health centre that shows the addresses of people who are isolating and how many children live there, and that’s when they drop off the care packages.
Funds were provided from the Nunavut government’s COVID-19 relief fund for municipalities.
Dalueg said she’s proud of the recreation department at the hamlet for the work they did to pull this initiative together.
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