Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meetings of the Bramalea Stamp Club are cancelled for the foreseeable future. The City of Brampton has closed all of the city Recreation Facilities including our meeting location at Terry Miller Recreation Centre, at least until April 5, 2020 but this closure is likely to remain in effect for longer than this timeframe. The City of Brampton, Province of Ontario and most of Canada are under a state of emergency and everyone is being asked to go home and stay home if not providing a critical service or supporting the health care industry in caring for patients and dealing with this world-wide pandemic. 

We expect that our Bramalea Stamp Club members are following the directives of the governments and their agencies to remain physically isolated from anyone they don't reside with and to practice physical distancing when running necessary errands such as getting groceries and medications, exercising or walking the dog. Please remember that it is absolutely acceptable to remain socially connected to others by email, telephone, social media, teleconferencing or even over the fence while maintaining the recommended 6 feet of distance between you and your neighbours or friends. We are all in this unusual situation together and the better we keep our distance now, the sooner we will be able to get through this difficult situation and return to a more normal life.

Since the membership of the Bramalea Stamp Club is made up primarily of retirees, we will consider the health and well-being of our members when the immediate threat of COVID-19 subsides and the pressure to physically isolate is reduced. Our meetings will only resume when the facilities reopen and we feel it is safe for all of our members to attend our meetings. Expect that it will take several weeks after physical isolation restrictions are reduced for the City of Brampton to determine if relaxed measures lead to a second wave of COVID-19 infections or if the City of Brampton can return to more normal operations and reopen the Recreation Facilities and allow meetings to restart. 

This COVID-19 pandemic has created life conditions that have never been experienced before. These conditions can be a challenge for anybody and particularly for anyone who lives alone. If any of you reading this are feeling challenged by the restrictions that have been imposed to keep all of us physically separated to prevent the spread of this virus, please reach out to us by email or call a friend, a relative, a neighbour or a helpline to talk and socially engage with someone from a safe distance. We are all thinking of you, our friend, our member, our family and we wish you all to stay healthy, stay safe, stay home but stay socially connected in some manner. Keep in touch, tell us what you are up to, what aspect of your collection you are working on, what are you accomplishing or just tell us how you are doing, how you are keeping yourself busy, mentally engaged, physically active and let us know if you would like to keep in regular touch while you stay physically separated. And please let us or someone know if you need help in any way or if you feel ill. Do not feel alone. Do not allow yourself to become completely isolated. We will get through this and we hope all of you, our members and friends, will join us as soon as the opportunity to do so returns. 

Contact: webmaster@bramaleastampclub.org

Bramalea Stamp Club President:  Bob Thorne

Bramalea Stamp Club Secretary:  Ron Walker, ronwalk2013@gmail.com

Links: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html

https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus

https://www.brampton.ca/EN/residents/emergency-management/Pages/COVID-19.aspx