In an effort to provide students valuable social in-person contact, the Aberdeen School District, the Aberdeen High School Athletic Department and the Grays Harbor YMCA have partnered to offer outdoor conditioning activity “pods” as part of the school district’s health and wellness programs.

The program began on Monday at Stewart Field with Aberdeen High School student-athletes participating in conditioning-based “activity pods,” which consist of five participants each and are 30 feet apart from other designated stations. Participants start with a warm-up before moving to the designated stations in a circuit-training type format over the 1.5 hour session.

Bobcat student-athletes will be the only participants for this week, but Aberdeen School District Superintendent Dr. Alicia Henderson explained that more offerings are coming soon to larger swaths of the student body.

“Obviously, our student-athletes are very interested to engage in conditioning,” she said. “But we want all of our students to have an opportunity to engage with the school community in a productive and healthy way.”

Registration is scheduled to open this week for activities organized by the YMCA and starting Monday, Dec. 14, activity pods are scheduled to open to all Aberdeen High School students who have filed the proper paperwork, which includes registration to the program and declarations that they have not been exposed to, or shown symptoms of, COVID-19.

Miller Junior High student activity pods are scheduled to begin the week of Dec. 21 with plans to open the program to elementary students in January.

Students are required to adhere to Washington Interscholastic Activities Association safety protocols and guidelines, including maintaining six feet of distance, no sharing of items and wear masks at all times.

With 89 students attending on the first night of the program and 84 students the following evening, Henderson stated the response to the program — the first of its kind in the county — has been substantial.

“We’ve had a very large response to this and are expecting a lot of students,” Superintendent Henderson said.

The purpose of the program, according to Henderson, is to address the issues students have faced in the age of a remote-learning curriculum, which has proven to be detrimental to the ability for students to socially interact.

Henderson explained that in an October survey of staff, students and parents, the district found “the toll taken on kids is great.”

“Some kids are OK, but a lot of kids are really struggling. They are struggling to get up in the morning, get dressed and attend a Zoom class,” she said. “But there are things beyond that that are disturbing to us. … (We thought) is there anything we can do? And the WIAA guidelines offer one potential way that we could connect with kids.”

Though it is a complex and difficult undertaking, involving multiple moving parts and aspects of the school district’s toolbox, Henderson said it had to be done to address the growing concerns of the parents and needs of their students.

“Without a doubt, the purpose is to address the health and wellness of our students,” Henderson said. “We’ve got a lot of concerns and I think anybody in touch with the school-age population realizes that it’s very traumatic to be without the connections of your school for so long. … We want all students to have an opportunity to engage with students in a productive and healthy way.”

To pull off this minor miracle, the school district pooled as many of its resources as possible — including staff from the athletic, facilities, health and administrative departments — and partnered with the YMCA to create a program it hopes will address the needs of students suffering from the adverse effects of COVID-era learning models.

“There is no way any single person can do this on their own. It’s been a very coordinated effort with a lot of people,” Henderson said. “We’ve put a lot of time into planning this and it’s a pretty amazing team of people we have in the Aberdeen School District working on this.”

The YMCA is currently developing activities to be used beginning next week after gathering focus-group feedback from Aberdeen last week. Additional activities are expected to use facilities district-wide, including covered and well-lit areas in addition to Stewart Field.

“The kids told us what they want to do, and we’re really thrilled the YMCA is working on this with us to pull off some ways kids can connect and be engaged,” Henderson said.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Aberdeen School District for the school district wide Health and Wellness Project and getting back to what we do best – helping everyone reach their full potential.” said Francine Potts, CEO of the YMCA of Grays Harbor. “The Y has served Grays Harbor for more than 118 years, during which we have made it through many challenging times together, none perhaps as impactful for our community and our Y as this COVID-19 crisis.”

To register for the activity pod program, visit www.ghymca.net/hw-activity-pods.

For more information visit asd5.org or ghymca.net.