If there is a universal truth to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that the number of ways for communities to come together while at the same time practicing good social distancing are as numerous as the number of communities themselves.

Gull Lake, home to just over 1,000 people, is a close-knit community unaccustomed to not seeing their neighbours regularly.

The same is true of the various non-profit organizations that call the town home.

Brittany Migneault is the president of the Gull Lake and District Kinettes. She said that the group's latest effort, a "Positivity Parade" held this past Sunday, was borne from that.

"The Kinettes couldn't meet as a group or put on any of our functions or events that we were usually doing. So we kind of started brainstorming about what kind of things we could do with social distancing or do while everything shut down."

The parade was a way of bringing some sunshine into the town as various members of the Kinettes, as well as emergency services and even retired military members decorated their vehicles and drove through the town, drawing families outside to watch as they passed.

 

Video courtesy of @GullLakeLife Facebook Page

 

While not entirely 'short notice'; in the planning stage since shortly after the schools were closed, the parade was never the less an ad-hoc affair, due in part to the complexity of planning while remaining physically distant.

"It just went from there. And then Natasha just really took the reins and got the date set and got the essential services workers involved."

Nathasha Vaughan, whom Migneault credits as the mastermind of the operation, did not want to be interviewed. But according to Migneault, it was she who took the parade from a small gathering of Kinettes to the inclusion of emergency services with their assorted vehicles as well as one or two other local businesses.

"And they brought all their different firetrucks; they have their rescue truck and their big pumper truck and the old one that is kind of retired. And then the ambulance of course and then the one retired army vet."

Migneault also gives a lot of credit to Gull Lake's Recreational Director, who spends a fair amount of time keeping spirits up and keeping people socially attached to each other via social media.

Contact that seems more important now more than ever.

"It's such a strange time in everybody's lives. So it's just really important to have just any sort of contact whether it be through social distancing...six feet apart or through social media or through a parade from one car to the other."