Woodson YMCA campus in Wausau. Image courtesy: Peter Vance/Woodson YMCA
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Some YMCA members in Marathon County will be able to make a decision regarding mask wearing next month.
Tuesday afternoon the Woodson YMCA announced that they are changing their masking requirement for fully vaccinated members on June 1st. The change will affect all Woodson YMCA facilities including their two branches and Camp Sturtevant.
Director of Communications and Community Relations Carrie Hutton says the change is being made with youth members in mind. “Members who are fully vaccinated, basically giving them the choice. If they want to continue to mask up or they don’t need to wear a mask in our facilities beginning on June 1st.
“So the people who have not received the vaccination as well as youth ages 5 to 11 who are not eligible for the vaccinations, we are asking them to continue to wear their masks at this time.
“We know that what we’ve done has been helpful so far and we want to continue to air on the side of caution. Giving ourselves a little window here between now and June 1st to allow for some extra time for those people who are the most recently eligible for vaccination to go ahead and begin that vaccination process,”.
Hutton says so far the organization has received mostly positive comments about the change in masking requirements. When asked about if the facilities will check for vaccination cards, Hutton says, “Honesty is really one of our main YMCA core values.
“So we’re going to assume that our members will follow that same value of honesty. So when they are removing their masks in our facilities, that means to us that they are fully vaccinated because we are going to treat them with honesty,”.
While the mask requirement will be changing on June 1st, Hutton says other mitigation measures will stay in place. Policies like limited class sizes and thorough cleaning of equipment before and after uses will still be expected for the foreseeable future.
Other COVID-19 related restrictions could be changed later this summer. But Hutton says that will be dependent on if the COVID-19 status in the community changes.
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