A Letter To The Chester Residents From Lauren Gister

CHESTER, CT — Chester Firstselectwoman Lauren Gister wrote the following letter to the town residents;

"Dear Chester,

Has it really been a year of this?

From the beginning of the pandemic, when we really had no idea what we would be facing or what it would take from us, we have come a long, long way. The first townwide email I sent dealing with the coronavirus was on February 28, 2020, and there have been 171 coronavirus updates since then. Looking back at my first messages, it is clear how little understanding we had of what was to come. Here is an excerpt from the first one:

2/28/2020: All of us are deeply concerned about Coronavirus. The Town of Chester is closely following updates and is coordinating closely with local health officials, other town leaders, first responders and our school officials to plan for appropriate response to the COVID-19 novel Coronavirus. There are currently NO confirmed cases of Coronavirus in our area.

As of today, Region 4 schools are closed until further notice and gatherings of people are being widely discouraged. In the interest of public safety, sports competitions, plays and musicals, business conferences and meetings, proms, boat shows, and many other events have been cancelled. Churches and synagogues have cancelled worship services and events, Russell Library in Middletown is closed, and many businesses and restaurants are reporting deep dips in business. While all of this is deeply disappointing, painful and inconvenient, when weighed against the opportunity to slow the spread of this virus and save even one person’s life, there is no question about the right thing to do under the circumstances.

Yikes!

530,000 of our friends and neighbors have been lost to COVID. Many more are having long term negative health effects from the virus. All of us have lost something dear during this past year: the opportunity to attend a child's graduation, hold the hand of a dying loved one, or visit a grandparent. Businesses have failed, kids have struggled or disengaged academically, depression is rampant. We have shared grief and loss, and we need to acknowledge the somber nature of our COVID experience. So much pain...

We have also stood up for and with each other in a huge way. Supporting local businesses, checking in on neighbors, donating or delivering food and books. Teams of residents volunteered hundreds of hours to help us watch outdoor movies and concerts, help arrange for vaccine appointments, organize parades for holidays and graduations, and more. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked - watched sunsets, hosted movie watch parties and zoom cocktail parties and book talks, did thousands of puzzles and made more masks than we could count. Adapting to a new reality, we are getting really good at remote and hybrid meetings, and even I am getting pretty competent at sharing my screen during a budget workshop.

Now we are looking at light, and hope, and opening the things that have been mostly closed or severely limited for a year. The pandemic is not "over", and we must retain many of our precautions for at least the next few months until we have a better idea of what to expect and know that we can avoid another surge of cases and hospitalizations. At the same time, our residents are rapidly getting vaccinated, and imagining a new normal. Dipping our toes in the water for visits with family and friends, walking gently and carefully into a new day.

I look forward to walking there together.

Be well,

Lauren"