The pandemic has undoubtedly taken its toll on the clubs at UO. Organizations are strained, twisted, stretched thin, dealing with dwindling recruits and empty leadership positions. Some embraced the world of Zoom the best they could, while others took a year-long hiatus to focus on the other problems brought on by the pandemic. The 2020 school year created unique challenges for clubs and student life, and UO students buckled down to tackle them the best they could.
Mind the Gap (and minding COVID-19)
“There was really no end in sight when COVID hit,” Katie Leonard, the President and Business Manager of the acapella group Mind the Gap, said. Mind the Gap had a trip to Boston planned before COVID hit the US because they were nominated for an acapella recording award through the International Championship of Collegiate Acapella, and Leonard vividly remembers discussing how the group might not be able to go at their last in-person practice. The group did not end up attending the ICCA’s that year.
Mind the Gap continued their practices during the pandemic via Zoom and even competed in the ICCAs last school year. “It was all virtual,” Leonard said. “All we had to do was submit a four-minute music video.” Although that might sound like a small task, the technicalities of COVID made the music video hard to record. The singers socially distanced or virtually rehearsed, which Leonard called “a pain.”
“It’s just so hard to blend and match parts and rhythms,” Leonard said. “You would sing your part and then hear someone else’s like a second behind.”
Although Mind the Gap struggled with the video, Leonard was quick to point out the silver linings. “If we got anything out of it, it was a lot of accountability for our own responsibilities in the group,” she said. “Our biggest accomplishment was definitely getting that music video done and submitting it, having something to show for the year.”
Leonard noticed a difference in how students are approaching clubs this school year. “People are tired, and you can just tell how nervous they are,” she said. “Everyone’s routines have changed so much, myself included, and trying to recover the sense of normalcy, especially in social gatherings, is really tough.”
Mind the Gap has been trying to recruit members and establish a routine again, while talking with the other acapella groups on campus to plan events in line with UO’s COVID guidelines. This year, Leonard hopes Mind the Gap can hold more accessible concerts, get back into recording and establish a presence in the community. “If anything, that’s the thing we’ve missed the most… that community connection,” she said.
Forbidden Fruit and forbidden meetings
Forbidden Fruit, UO’s own Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Cast, faced similar performance-based problems as Mind the Gap. Because a shadow cast performs Rocky Horror live in front of the movie, Forbidden Fruit struggled to keep their club alive. “At the start of the pandemic, the club was kind of put on the back burner,” Laurel Sleeper, the Public Relations chair of Forbidden Fruit, said. Sleeper is a recent UO graduate who is also filling an advisor role until the club gets back on its feet. Forbidden Fruit decided not to have any meetings during the 2020 school year.
“That first summer of COVID we had Zoom meetings, and we talked about different options we could do like YouTube videos or stitching videos together or outside performances,” Sleeper said. “It was getting all the way into September and October, which is usually when our first shows happen, when we looked at the long list of ideas we had and decided this wasn’t our number one priority right now.”
Sleeper and the rest of Forbidden Fruit weighed out the pros and cons and decided that, with the uncertainty they faced regarding performing logistics and the mental strain the pandemic had put on them, it wasn’t worth it to continue Forbidden Fruit through COVID.
“Something about our club is that we attract a lot of LGBT people,” Sleeper said. They explained that a lot of queer people find their college friends through Rocky and that the club is close because of long rehearsals and cast bonding. “I think it’s also important to acknowledge that being a queer-focused group, we have a history as a community with diseases that aren’t taken seriously and people die from them,” Sleeper said. “We’re not going to be the ones to say ‘Oh whatever it’ll blow over. Let’s take our masks off and gather.’”
Forbidden Fruit is planning on doing shows this year, most likely with masks and in an outside venue. “If you know anything about Rocky Horror shadow casts, it’s that performances happen in front of the movie, and screen accuracy is really important, which includes lip-syncing,” Sleeper said. They explained the cast will have to focus more on body language this year because viewers won’t be able to watch their mouths. Although the performances will be modified, Sleeper is excited to get Forbidden Fruit back on track this year.
Camp Kesem continues
Camp Kesem, a UO club that runs a summer camp for children with parents that are battling cancer, also struggled to abide by COVID guidelines. “Our big, yearly thing is a camp, or two weeks of camp, over the summer,” co-director Cole Jensen said. “We had to remake all of our camp activities to somehow fit to be virtual.”
A normal session at Camp Kesem is a Monday to Saturday sleepaway experience. Campers partake in all the classic camp activities like games, arts and crafts and even canoeing on a nearby lake. “Obviously none of that really applies to Zoom,” Jensen said. “We’ve had to remake all of our games, and there’s no real outdoor activities, no sleepaway part which is obviously something the kids look forward to.”
The camp sent boxes of arts and crafts activities and simple games to campers for them to do during the Zoom sessions from home. Camp Kesem also continued doing call and response chants, and they tried to put together Zoom games for participants, but the camp hosts kids ranging from five to 18, so the age groups have different interests.
“The point of the camp is that these kids’ parents have been going through a lot, they have a lot on their plate, and so to get a cost-free camp — we fundraise everything for them — their kids get a chance to get away,” Jensen said. “The parents get a little bit of free time; it’s obviously difficult to care for kids while you’re dealing with cancer.”
Although the kids couldn’t physically leave for camp these past two years, Jensen still thinks that camp brightened their summers. “I think just being able to see each other’s faces is really big, just to keep the continuity,” Jensen said. Some campers have been attending Camp Kesem for five to ten years, so it was crucial that they kept in touch with their friends, even in the pandemic.
“I think not being able to totally be away, and not be totally independent, we weren’t able to deliver fully on that. But obviously there’s nothing we could really do,” Jensen said. Less than 10 members that run Camp Kesem have actually been to an in-person camp, which Jensen said is strange because the whole organization is built around in-person camp. This year the club is planning on a full, in-person camp set for summer 2022 and is hosting a one-day camp this fall.
Racing to Recover from COVID
Despite the struggles and guideline changes that COVID has thrown their way, many clubs at UO persevered through the pandemic. There wasn’t a how-to or any leader telling clubs what choice was right; they all made their own decisions and faced COVID the best they could. UO clubs reacted to COVID in different ways, but they’re all facing similar challenges at the start of the 2021 school year.
“We’re just trying to keep whatever scraps we can to still be a presence,” Sleeper said. “The movie came out in the 70s and for some reason this stupid tradition came alive. And so, weirdly enough, it’s something that we want to keep going.” Forbidden Fruit is getting back on its feet this year, much like Mind the Gap and Camp Kesem.
“I’ve learned that the community is a big part of any club or any organization,” Jensen said. “Having people who know each other and love each other and like to spend time together…. That’s really critical. It’s hard to replicate that when you just don’t interact [in person].” This year, with the vaccine roll-out and a generally safer environment, UO students can look forward to more club involvement on campus.
