By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The weather could not have been better for the youngsters happily playing in Massey Park late Tuesday morning.
Schu's Crew daycare, along with provider and owner Pat Schumacher, has been to the Hays park regularly this spring — but this was the first time in more than a month they could actually use the playground equipment.
"You could hear them yelling a block away when they saw all the tapes were gone," Schumacher said. "They could hardly wait until I said 'drop your rings and ropes and go play.' "
Most Hays parks remained open when Gov. Laura Kelly issued the March 28 stay-at-home order for Kansans in an effort to combat spread of COVID-19, but the playground equipment and picnic shelters were cordoned off.
The order expired May 4, and a phased-in gradual reopening of Kansas businesses is underway.
Hays Parks Department employees began removing the temporary ropes, zip ties and fencing Monday from all playgrounds in Hays. Park restrooms, however, normally reopened when the weather warms up, remain closed.
Schumacher's daycare facility is within walking distance of the park and the kids have been enjoying it even though the play equipment was off limits.
"We've had bubbles and chalk to draw pictures on the sidewalk. I told them to send happy messages to the people who suffered from the coronavirus, because we're all in it together, and I've stressed that."
They also rode scooters on the cement and practiced driving around cones. Running barefoot through the grass included music and dancing.
Last week, the children were treated to a pizza party — a picnic lunch on quilts spread out on the park grass.
"We've been keeping our social distance," Schumacher noted, "but I just want them to be kids and enjoy old fashioned fun and play.
"When everything else is going on around them, you just don't want to see their childhood robbed from them."
Daycare providers are considered essential businesses and have remained open in Kansas.
"I think that's something the public doesn't always understand or acknowledge is that we're essential to the workforce," she said. "We do have some parents that work at the hospital or other medical facilities, and we needed to provide daycare for them."
