As of September 22nd, 2021 the Ontario Government has enacted a Vaccine Passport for non essential businesses across Ontario. We wanted to outline what these new regulations mean for training at the CheerStrike gym.
1. The regulation outlines that “patrons under 18 years of age who are entering the indoor premises of a facility used for sports and recreational fitness activities solely for the purpose of actively participating in an organized sport” are exempt from requiring proof of vaccination. For athletes who are 18 years old or older the law requires “proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and proof of identification (or proof of being entitled to another exemption)…of youth actively participating in an organized sport.”
Given these above regulations, we will not be requiring athletes to be vaccinated in order to continue participating on a CheerStrike team or class, unless they are 18 years old or older.
2. For any special events or other programs taking place inside the gym, proof of vaccination will be required to attend, for anyone 12 years old or older.
3. At this time, due to capacity limitations, parents are not allowed in the gym. When they are allowed inside, they or anyone else, will be required to provide proof of vaccination before entering.
4. All staff at CheerStrike will be required to provide proof of vaccination to continue coaching/instructing at the gym, or a negative COVID test before every shift.
What is our rationale for following the law as written, rather than making vaccinations mandatory for all athletes 12+?
- As an organization we know that vaccinations play a key role in the ending of this pandemic, in keeping businesses like ours open, in allowing life to get back to normal for children, and most importantly in saving lives.
- We encourage all those who can get vaccinated to do so in order to protect their health and the health of our community; we believe it is the least we can do to help our community and health care providers.
- As of September 24th, 2021 – 77.7% of 12-17 year olds in London are fully vaccinated, and 86.7% have received one dose. Our hope is that these numbers continue to rise.
- Parents are making the vaccination decisions for most children, not children themselves.
- Our competitive teams started training in July 2021; removing kids from teams they have bonded with, and have already learned an entire routine with for the past 3 months -based on vaccination status – wouldn’t be ideal for those children who, in most cases, do not have the power to get themselves vaccinated.
- One of our goals as a business is to make the sport of cheer accessible to all children and teens who want to participate in it. We feel that by following the regulations as currently written by the government of Ontario, we are doing all we can to keep our athletes, staff and families safe while also keeping our program accessible to all children.