LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — This is why a coach will tell you to keep your head up when you dribble. You never know when you’ll find a teammate, even inside an empty gym.
“We really needed, at this time, more space to spread them out for social distancing to keep them safe, to keep our community safe and to keep our staff safe,” Lexington’s Hope Center's Carrie Thayer said.
The Hope Center facility, while suitable under normal conditions, wasn’t big enough to offer the kind of social distancing that health experts are recommending during this COVID-19 crisis. So they called around to see who might have some extra space that isn’t being used. Transylvania University answered that call.
“We were all in from the moment that the Board of Directors at Hope Center called our board,” Megan Moloney from Transylvania’s office of Marketing and Communications said.
On Tuesday, the process of moving roughly 50 clients into this gymnasium inside the Beck Center began. A kitchen facility is off to the side of the gym, and plenty of showers are available inside the locker rooms. Each client will be given a medical examination before entering the gym.
“We do all of the screening before they get here so we know they’re healthy,” said Janice James from the Hope Center.
James also conceded that it’ll be impossible to know if everyone is in perfect health given the nature of this virus and its incubation period. But so far, James said, not a single Hope Center client has tested positive for coronavirus.
The clients who move in here are asked to stay until at least April 30, a soft date, which could be extended. That is for their safety and the safety of the community. An outdoor courtyard is available to them. If anyone chooses to leave, they won’t be able to come back given the potential for brining COVID-19 into the gym.
Transylvania University won’t see a dime in return for offering up the building. They didn’t ask, and they don’t want a thing.
“For 240 years Transy has been a member of this community and it’s during times like this, when the community is in need, that we want to do what we can to help out,” Moloney said.
