After over a year of social distancing and intermittent quarantines, URI’s Outing Club offers students a breath of fresh air. Photos contributed by URI Outing Club.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions preventing the Outing Club from hiking on their usual trails and mountains, the organization has still managed to meet this academic year.
According to Emma Crisfield, the club treasurer, it has been a “crazy year” for the club. They have had to keep strict social distancing protocols alongside requiring masks and limiting group sizes.
Crisfield pointed out that since their club activities are outside, it has been easier for them to adapt their activities for the pandemic than other organizations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the chance for COVID-19 transmission is lower outdoors.
The group has gone on hikes almost every week this semester, which has allowed members to socialize. However, many other aspects of the club have been different from past years.
“In a normal year, we would go out of state [and on] overnight trips as well,” President Kevin Kloos said. “We weren’t able to do many of those this year, we had to compromise and do day trips, mostly local to Rhode Island.”
According to Kloos and Crisfield, before the pandemic, the group would go camping and hiking in other states, such as New Hampshire and Vermont. Due to current CDC restrictions, they have not been able to do that.
Even though members are put into smaller groups, the number of members who are able to attend the trips is still limited. Members must sign up for hikes before attending, though anyone can sign up to attend, according to Crisfield.
While many of its activities take place outside, the group does some indoor activities, such as rock climbing at Rockspot Climbing, according to Vice President Sarah Dimatto. The number of people allowed to participate at any given time is restricted.
While Crisfield, Kloos and Dimatto are graduating at the end of this semester, they hope that the new executive board, headed by upcoming President Tina Munter, will be able to resume its usual activities.
“We do like to hike mountains a lot,” said Kloos, pointing out that there are no mountains in Rhode Island. “So I think next year’s [executive board] is going to play it by ear, see how [the restrictions] are trending”
Crisfield said that this year was much tougher for the club since it was harder to recruit new members and get them to participate in events with all of their meetings being online.
While their activities have been limited by the pandemic, the Outing Club is happy that they were still able to get out and hike. Crisfield, Kloos and Dimatto all said that the club was very member-oriented, and expressed hope that future members are able to do more during their time at URI.
“I hope that next year’s club can go out and do what people want to do,” Dimatto said.
They encouraged members to share their ideas for future trips. The group prides itself on being open to anyone, whether they go hiking daily or have never been hiking before.
“This is a club about making friends and being outside,” Crisfield said, “We really hope that through following the guidelines and continuing to be safe, we can grow the club and help everybody make new friends and meet new people.”