The Foothills Boys and Girls Club recently reopened with some new regulations in place to protect from COVID-19.

CEO of the Boys and Girls club in the Foothills Shirley Pottock says they are operating at half capacity for now and won't be back to full normal this summer.

"We're not at full capacity just yet but we are moving towards that because everything has been going well, the board of directors has decided we will not be opening our school-aged programs probably until September, we're still looking at that but it's not likely we'll be open for the summer camp.

Puttock says for what is open they will be following a whole new list of rules.

"We wrote whole new policies and procedures, our staff in the daycares are doing a fantastic job of taking temperatures, doing assessments upon arrival and keeping the children in their own cohorts."

Puttock says before they opened when COVID first hit they had some worries about funding and keeping the lights on.

"It was a little discouraging at first because the grants we applied for provincially and nationally, we were getting emails and calls that they wouldn't be moving forward at this time, but then we received an overwhelming response from corporations, and from our provincial government and from local business donating COVID response money for food support, basic needs, activity kits for the kids, operations dollars, our landlords stepped up right away giving us rent relief, the town of Black Diamond gave us rent relief.  We received a lot of donations from the Boys and Girls Club of Canada as well as many other companies wanting to help out.

Puttock says she thinks lots of local families are going to be looking for help soon.

"Initially there was a great need before the government funding came out, and now with government cheques done, so families won't be getting money for the next month and I think we will be able to help a lot of families."

The Boys and Girls Club has been reopened since June 15th.