 You're tuned in to the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn LaBea Renault and today is Tuesday, September 8, 2020. We're sharing local news and resources, focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. So folks, one of the things impacting us today is smoke and ash in particulate matter from fires burning all around us, specifically from two large fires in Mendocino County. So it's hot, windy, the air quality is horrible, and there's a flex alert in place. Stay inside if you can, but please know the City of Davis is operating cooling centers in town. Find out more at cityofdavis.org. My guests today are Karen Motokaitis talking about the impact of the pandemic on youth swimming and Stacey Ferrics to talk about the Davis Art Center. I'll be off next week, but on September 22, I'll speak with UC Davis Chancellor Gary May and coming up on September 29, we'll chat with Jesse Salinas, our Yolo County Assessor, Clerk Recorder and Registrar of Voters because this pandemic, among other things, is changing how we'll vote in this election. We'll also check in with local organizer NJ Vando about the Healing Art Project. Each week in preparation for this show, I read a variety of news sources and research the spread of the novel coronavirus. It has not been comforting to read from experts this week that the U.S. has failed to turn a corner on the virus, and the evidence of that is all too common. Public health officials advised that we should expect another spike of cases following the Labor Day weekend that just passed. If you're unclear about what a super spreader event looks like, last week's news reported that one wedding in Maine yielded 147 cases and three deaths after the pastor told attendees of the indoor wedding and reception that masks were not required. The three people who died didn't even attend the wedding, but were infected by attendees. Here's the thing, nobody is exempt from this virus. Originally, they thought it was going to be hardest for people over the age of 65, but according to the Yolo County COVID dashboards, nearly a third of the county's 30 total cases reported Saturday were in Davis, and they included one person under the age of 17 and five between the ages of 18 and 24. That's not the group. We originally thought it was going to be, and this city has seen a steady uptick in cases in both age groups. Over the last week, the county reported 193 new cases, seven hospitalizations, and another death. With an average of more than 27 new cases per day in the last week, as well as a test positivity rate topping 8%, the county does not appear to be heading in the right direction that will get us off the state's tier one category and into tier two, where more businesses would be allowed to open and things can return to whatever normal looks like these days. But Yolo County's interim public health officer, Dr. Larissa May said last week it's unlikely we'll be there. I'm ready to move to that tier before October. And honestly, October sounds pretty optimistic at this point. Reminder for a look at the impact in cities across Yolo County, visit YoloCounty.org and see all the COVID resources spotlighted on the front page there. Take a look at the road to recovery as well as the COVID statistic dashboards. And here's a testing reminder for our area that OptumServe COVID-19 testing site runs through September 20th at the Davis Senior Center, 646 A Street in Davis. And testing at this site is open to all California residents, regardless of documentation status. And it's by appointment only. There are some other things you need to fit in there and some questions about health insurance so you can get more info by calling 888-634-1123 or visit lhi.care.org. We'll be back in just a second with our first interview. Okay, Karen Motokaitis is the longtime host of the radio show and podcast, How She Really Does It, which started right here on Cater at 12 years ago and aired for many years here. She describes herself as a mother, wife, family member, friend, entrepreneur, and community builder, and she's also a master certified life and leadership coach. But today she's here wearing another hat that of co-director for local youth swim team, Davis Aqua Monsters, which she runs with her husband, Pete Motokaitis. Hello, Karen, and welcome. Hi, Autumn, thanks for having me. It's great to hear your voice. You and I have known each other a long time since I kind of helped talk you into getting started on radio. So this is a fun twist. You got me into radio. I love it. Your success story. Hey, I reached out to you because you shared something on Facebook last week or week or two ago that got my attention. And I hadn't really thought about it through that lens, but it was about the impact of this pandemic on youth sports. So let's start at the beginning. Tell us about Davis Aqua Monsters. When and why did you and Pete start this organization? I know it was a long time ago. So we didn't start it. We took it over and I bought it. I did not want anything to take over because I did not want to come back and work with youth, really, actually, parents in our town. I had done that in the 90s and it was really hard and didn't want to come back and do that. And I didn't want to come back and do it because also it was going to take over our lives. And here I am 15 years later, running the Aqua Monsters. So we're a youth organization. It's a nonprofit. It's grassroots. Essentially, filming saved my life and changed the trajectory of my life. And so that's why these kids are so important. The other thing that's really important for me is to create a place of belonging where you can be accepted, right? Especially in our town where there's so many hierarchies and different social economics and even the swimming, you know, I mean it's a youth sport and it is, you know, we have kids of kind of, you know, different social economics and different stuff in our team and we also have kids with disabilities. But it's a place where I can get people to come together and we can kind of put away all the hierarchies of town and our motto is every monster matters. Right. I love that. I love how you say swimming saved your life, too. And I know that, you know, you were in Division II national champion. You were all American. You were inducted into the Hall of Fame at UC Davis. So and Pete has, Pete is a coach, too, right? Yeah. So in normal times, how does it work? What is the Aquamonsters program like? I know I keep saying in normal times, like I don't know that everything and it will be normal again. But if someone were interested in getting involved with your organization, how would that work? So pre-COVID, I mean, we really had an open policy. People would come in, you had a kid with a disability because my bonus son, Pete's oldest son, is developmentally disabled. So people have known that, hey, we're very inclusive. We don't just put you into a special Olympics group. You're part of the team. And so even the summer, the best swimmer in the town of Davis is a girl named Nally Burkut. She's in the Olympic trials. And then the lady next to her is a girl who has an IEP. She's on the spectrum. She's on the stick, right? So they're in the same group. That's one of the beauties of our program is that we're very inclusive and we make it up to the code. We put the response on the coaches to diversify the learning. So the child with a disability doesn't have the same expectations of the workout as the Olympic trials qualifier. The problem with COVID now is there's very limited space. The current county guidelines are you can have two people per lane. They have to start on opposite ends. So normally I would have six, eight, maybe 10 kids in a lane, depending on how little they were. The high school group, we have five or six, but the little, little ones could have eight or 10, depending on the size of the lane and so on. So it's a huge economic change because it's so much more costly. You have to have a COVID coach. You have to do the COVID check-in. Make sure that we maintain social distancing. You have a coach on the deck. You may have diverse levels. So it's a lot more expensive to run. And we were running, programming, which we got a lot of criticism from because we ran 86 hours a week at a royal pool in town. That was in the summer, we can only have one kid per lane. And we are just trying to see how can we get as many kids in just for mental health, for emotional health, right? It wasn't because we were all so excited to be on the pool deck that many hours in a mask in the blazing sun. You know, Pete's been coaching since like, I don't know, 1983. And, you know, he's kind of like, you know, a farmer. It's like, OK, this is what we do. I'm standing, right? And he said it was the hardest summer he's ever coached because we're in the mask and the heat index that with wearing the mask, trying to get the information out to the kids. The kids were amazing. Kids were absolutely amazing. But the circumstances of coaching, yeah, it was hard. Well, he touched on a lot there. You also said something about for mental health. And that's something I've been increasingly talking about on the show because, you know, when kids participate in sports, they're not just there for the the way it works, their bodies. It's what it does for their their peer relationships, their developmental skills, all of that. And so there's been a lot of kids missing out on all of that during this time, right? Yeah. So there's a book called I think it's called Blue Mind in there, a doctor did research about the brainwaves and like we have great great great brainwaves and red ones like when we have anger anxiety, there's a certain population that when you put people in water, their brain goes like it just it goes into the soothing, right? And I've actually seen this with kids with that are that are on the autistic spectrum. They it gets there. There's a lot of calmness that comes once they trust the process and understand how we do things. It's very soothing. And so I'm a person that has a blue brain or blue mind like when I'm with water, if I'm really stressed out, if you're a person that likes to go to the ocean and look at water or likes to be around lakes, and I know you like to be on the river, right? We have these blue minds and it's it's actually a way to decrease stress. So even though our town is rather privileged, the kids have gone through a lot of trauma this year, right? There's been a lot of loss. Yeah. And so one of my things when we were trying to reopen was this was my way that I could help serve our community. Like I can't help with the homeless issue. I can't help with like schizophrenia, like those kinds of mental health, but here's an area that I have an expertise at that I can make sure we follow the rules of COVID, right? The protocols of the county has given us and try to get the kids into the water, get the kids into the water in the safest manner that we could without potentially spreading from what we knew based on the science. Yeah. And on I'm on June 16th, the day that we opened and I kept watching kid after kid after kid come out of the water, it was like relief had been wiped off their forehead, right? And so, you know, I again, I do this for the kids and I think it's very calming. And then there's a sense of connection. It was really weird, you know, on June 13th, I was taping down the deck with the other coaches and we're all trying to stay so it's six feet away, but we hadn't seen people outside of our family, right? So it was really hard. The kids are amazing at social distancing. They walk in. They go through, we have some questions. They tell us the answers. They get a fine to go stand on a number on the deck. They stand there. And then when they get told to go into their lane, they go into their lane. They follow the rules. They exit. We've taught them how not to touch stuff like use their back or use their kickboard to leave. They're amazing. And I was worried that they'd be running around, you know, but they're amazing. The kids have been amazing through this problem. They must have some innate understanding of, Hey, if I want to participate, I really have to, you know, follow the rules. I have to show up and do what's asked of me, which shows how important it is to them, right? Yeah. And we were really clear. Like I was very clear. I've been a really strong leader in this because I was very clear with the families. Like if these are the rules and if you don't want to follow them, do not sign up. And it wasn't to be mean. It was that I could not risk our sport getting shut down. I could not risk our team getting shut down, our sport being shut down or other youth sports. Right. Like I take that responsibility really high. So I've, you know, I've had to send out very clear messages that parents, if they come, they're not allowed in parents, if they, because we're at a royal, so the park is right there, if they're going to sit there, they have to maintain six feet apart. We cannot be considered social gathering. And guess what? If you're there and you're an aqua monster parent, you must be wearing a mask, right? Like, and I've had to send out emails. I've had to have conversations. None of that stuff is fun. That's been the hard stuff is enforcing. And that's where I feel like in the different leaderships that I've been watching, whether it's in our community or throughout the country is when the leadership has not been clear and when they have not been direct and people aren't, you know, then the consequences have been really high. I know. We're seeing that impact everywhere too. Karen, what about the municipal pools? I mean, I read in the Davis enterprise that LAP swims and swim lessons reopened today. How has the availability of or lack of availability of pools affected you or has it? It's all a ripple effect. Like everybody in the community, it gets affected, right? Because essentially, we told us to our membership because we can rent a city pool. Like in the beginning, the city pools weren't available to the public because they were trying to figure out how do you do this in a safe way? Yeah. I mean, it's one thing when I have a community that I'm in control over and I can be very direct and state stuff, the city has opened up LAP Swim and they do it and where you can sign up the swim lessons, I believe and I'm not totally sure because everything's changing so much. I believe how they opened up the lessons was that the instructor was teaching the parent how to teach the kid. Yeah. And that's a really high-skill level to do and we run us from school and we haven't been able to reopen because it's not county approved and it was such an undertaking to open up the team that we just didn't do that and my coaches who are very good, they were like, you want me to teach parents? Yeah, that's hard all the way around because parents go to swim coaches because we don't know how to teach these skills and we want our kids to be safe. And they don't want to get in. I mean, one of the things they love about the Monster Swim School is they're like, I don't have to get with my kid on where do I sign up? So again, now the problem with COVID is there's an underserved population because even on our team, if you weren't five and could get across the pool by yourself, you weren't allowed on the team. So we have a kid that has a disability and who's been on the team but has been out for so long and the mom and I went back and forth and I actually recommended against it. Him coming back for right now just because I'm like, I don't know if that would be safe and she understood it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Before we run out of time here, your Facebook post that drew me in in the first place, you were responding to a swim program being canceled at a college. And so really the impact of what we're seeing, if kids don't have the opportunity to swim and refine skills now and keep growing, they may not have that opportunity down the line. They may not have opportunities for scholarships and things, correct? Correct. So so far I believe there's been six Division I programs in the colleges or Division I and C2As that have been cut for swimming. And there's more in the other divisions. And so, and we're at the start of this, we haven't even, you know, gone through the school year yet. So we're gonna see. And so that's where I really invite people to really look, people may think like, oh, okay, well, my kids only in sixth grade or eighth grade and yeah, we're gonna go do this birthday party. But the longer that this pandemic goes on in our country, the more dire the financial repercussions. Yeah, long-term impacts. Yeah, I really wanna thank you and Pete, both for your long-term dedication to the kids and the families in this town. What you've done with Davis Aqua Monsters is nothing short of remarkable. And, you know, I'm just, I'm sorry to hear. It's such a struggle right now, but you're still plugging. So thank you for that. I know you, you do not give up ever. So, so where can people get more info about Davis Aqua Monsters? Understanding folks, if you're listening, you know, now may not be the optimal time to join, but it's a great program to know about. So what's your, what's your website? David's AquaMonsters.org. Yeah, we only have right now two spots even left. Yeah. And one's in the high school group and then one's in our four through seventh grade higher level group. So there's just, I mean, that's the unfortunate thing about this is there's really not opportunities for kids to come about. Yeah. That's what's heartbreaking. Yeah. But, but David's AquaMonsters.org and thank you very much, Autumn. All right, it's been a pleasure to speak with you. I look forward to seeing you, you know, in person someday again. Yes, yes. All right, best to you and Pete. Take care. Thanks. Bye-bye. We're gonna take a minute for music and we'll be back with our second interview. All right, my next guest is Stacy Frerichs, who serves as the executive director of the Davis Arts Center. Hi there, Stacy, how are you? Hi, I'm doing well, Autumn. Good. How are you? I'm good, it's good to hear your voice. Yes, you too. So I'm using the second interview to check in with some of the arts and cultures organizations in town because as you and I both know, we've been hit very hard during this pandemic. And I wanna say that the Davis Arts Center has been a beloved institution for many years. Is it 60 years, do I have that correct? You do, this is our 60th anniversary. Wow. And you know, what people really know you for, for the large number of art classes that have been taught there over the years. So I'm checking in with you to ask, what happens when you can't offer classes? Maybe tell us about your first few months during the pandemic. Right, yeah, like everybody, we didn't know what the future would hold and we wanted to make sure our patrons, our staff, our teaching artists were all safe. So we actually camped the classes pretty, pretty just before the stay at home orders. And that was because we have drama classes with, and martial arts classes, there's a lot of close contact. And so about 90% of our revenue comes from in-person programming. So we transitioned very quickly to doing a weekly arts email where we provided interesting art projects, ideas from the web, and then notes about artists that we could share with our patrons. And donors for that, arts email has actually sustained us this whole time. And we've learned a lot from doing weekly arts emails. And I would say the most hopeful thing I've seen is that when times are difficult, people turn to arts to sustain them. And the idea that Davis Arts Center has taught hundreds of thousands of students skills that might have helped sustain them during this time makes me incredibly proud and grateful. That's beautiful. You also told me a story recently about making 200 art kits. And it involved a lot of clay and a lot of moving things around. Tell us more. Yeah, so the weekly emails actually prepared us well for pivoting our summer camps. We were so sad we weren't able to continue our all day summer arts camps this year. So we pivoted to create what I called art camp in a box. It was really in a bag actually. And we created kits of art supplies, an entire packet of written projects so that if you do not want to be on a screen, you didn't have to. So you could take the kit and do all of the projects with the materials we gave you. But we also took videos from other parts of the web and we made videos ourselves. So it was a big learning experience for our staff at the arts center. But between the production of those art emails and the kits, we were able to serve over 600 campers this summer with an art kit. And we had five different themes and each week we had to drop a pickup time so people could come pick up the kits at the art center and we mailed them. And one of the most interesting things is we had a lot of people who participated with family members in other states. So we mailed the packages to other states and they all got on together and did the art together as families. And that was just so, made me so happy. And that's also launched us a little bit into thinking about what we could do in the fall and we're looking at some variation of the art kit idea for the fall. Right, because like you, we run a community center and that means there's usually a lot of community coming into it. And it's been the weirdest thing to not have that to not be able to offer workshops in person. And I think you're right. We're not looking at that happening this fall. Who knows when, next year, there's no real end date to this in sight. What's kind of, what's giving you hope as we move forward? And if you're gonna do another art kit, what does that look like? You just told a really powerful story about how that kit united people and families even in different states. So, what else can might come forward along those lines? Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to talk about that. I did wanna just mention one quick thing in case your listeners have not heard that because of the uncertainty in programming, we have canceled the holiday sale and the Davis Art Studio tour for this year. And so, we're getting that word out there as best we can, but I just wanted to make sure that that was also out there since we have some really large events that happen in the fall. And we're sad, but we also understand that we don't think that we could hold them safely and we wanna make sure that that's the first priority of our community. Right, I'm glad you mentioned those. So I just wanna say that. But an art kit, for the fall, we've been talking about what does it look like to provide maybe a kit to every student in one or two grades within Davis Joint Unified School District so that we can think about equity amongst the students and what type of supplies they have. And also, possibly working within a group of teachers to combine art and science, and at least so the teachers know there's total art supplies for those children. And so we're working on that programming, what that might look like and how we can deliver that to the community. We're also looking at, are there other groups of people that would like to do art remotely together? Senior facilities, we're working with first five YOLO for zero to five kits. And there's a few first fives around the state that have been doing really interesting kits and we're in communication with them as well. So I think there's a lot of hope in getting these kits and art supplies out to people. And it's really gotten us to think about what our curriculum and programming looks like long-term at Davis Art Center and how we can really build skills so that we know that if you come to a class at Davis Art Center, you leave with a skill that really serves you in your life as well as in your community. Great. So where can people get more info, Stacey? Our website, so davisartcenter.org with arts with an S. We do have a Facebook page, which I would say is a little bit less active since COVID started, but you could watch a time-lapse video of us packing art kits on that page. So that's kind of fun and we announced everything there. And I will say we are starting a new version of our weekly emails at the end of September. And those are gonna be open to the public. I like to say the tagline of those emails is we're gonna be connecting the dots between quickly interesting art content on the internet. And so sign up there and that's another way to get all the announcements about Davis Art Center. Thanks so much. We could do that on our website. Thanks so much for coming on and talking to us about what you do and for keeping hope alive and keeping the arts alive, it's important. Thank you and thank you for everything you're doing too. We really appreciate that. All right, take care. You too, bye. Okay, I'm leaving a little bit more inspired and a little bit more hopeful. Thanks to Corinne Motokitis and Stacey Frerichs for joining us today. Thanks to you for tuning in. You've been listening to the COVID-19 Community Report and I'm Autumn Lab A-Reno signing off.