Wednesday, May 13, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Spanish golf courses
help in COVID-19 fight
By Tia Duerrmeyer
Correspondent
BY KATHY DEGGENDORFER
Editor9s note: Former
S i s t e r s re s i d e n t a n d
N u g g e t c o r re s p o n d e n t
Tia Duerrmeyer shares a
COVID-19 update from her
home in the Costa del Sol
area of Spain. In her com-
munity private and public
sectors are working together
to fight the spread of the
coronavirus by cleaning and
disinfecting local streets,
parking lots, and community
areas. Tia submits the very
simple, grassroots idea with
the hope that it might spread
beyond Spain9s borders.
Atalaya Golf & Country
Club is the first golf facility
in Spain to offer its machin-
ery and a staff member to
clean and disinfect the streets
and parking areas nearby its
two golf courses. The cam-
paign is spearheaded by
Atalaya9s Director General
Andrés Sánchez, who is
encouraging other courses
throughout Spain to join the
project.
Working in partnership
with the municipality of
Benahavis, Atalaya9s <clean
and disinfect= initiative went
into effect on Monday morn-
ing March 23. The streets of
La Alquería Villas, Atalaya
Hills and parts of the El
Paraiso subdivision were
sanitized.
Agronimer Golf of
Marbella, under the direction
of David Fernández, him-
self an Atalaya member, is
providing a second fumiga-
tor and operator to work in
conjunction with Atalaya to
carry out the necessary work.
Sterilizing products
and diesel for the equip-
ment are being provided by
the Benahavis city coun-
cil, allowing the service to
be provided to all free of
cost. This cooperative effort
exemplifies how public and
private partnerships are able
to collaborate to offer vital
community services in times
of need.
Sánchez has asked the
Andalusian Golf Federation
to encourage clubs through-
out Andalucía to participate.
He said, <I spoke with the
Andalusian Golf Federation
to organize all golf clubs of
Andalucía to help with their
fumigation machinery, and
the federation has already
posted an email to all the
courses of Andalucía to
take the example of Atalaya
Golf.=
The concept is very
simple. Golf facilities are
being asked to provide their
machinery and personnel
free of charge to clean and
disinfect the streets of areas
located near their individual
clubs.
<At the initiative of
Atalaya, Benahavís will
be the first municipality
in which this campaign is
launched, but surely there
are many more municipali-
ties that will be delighted to
have this help,= said Maria
Rosa Giménez de la Riva,
spokeswoman for the golf
federation. <That is why,
from the Royal Andalusian
Golf Federation, we encour-
age all of you to contact your
municipalities to transfer this
proposal to them. The golf
sector will be doing its bit to
fight the virus.=
With all golf courses
closed during the cur-
rent lockdown, which now
has been extended until
May 9, other golf clubs are
quickly falling in line behind
Atalaya. They are welcoming
the opportunity to mitigate
the effects of the COVID-19
virus.
<We will try to make the
whole initiative a great suc-
cess,= said Sánchez.
LETTERS
Continued from page 2
regarding this pandemic and thereby risk
infecting others, including him and his
family?
Without any hint he recognizes the
irony, he calls my criticism <left-wing talk-
ing points= and states that his version of
<Conservative values&are values that all
citizens should support regardless of politi-
cal affiliation.= He ends with <We are all in
this together.= That was exactly my point:
Suggesting that we can ignore science and do
whatever we want in this time of pandemic is
dangerous talk.
Gretchen Honen chastises me for using
the phrase <right-wing talking points.= See
above. She apparently missed most of my let-
ter that specifically rebutted Mr. Donohue9s
points as contrary to current medical science
and therefore dangerous to us and to others.
I also highlighted his view that up to <a few
million= preventable deaths may be a price we
have to pay <for the needs of the many.= I am
not willing to pay that price. Are you?
Michael Wells
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Some of your readers may have read < The
Eyes Of Darkness= by Dean Koontz (1981).
It was a very pricey required reading in
a creative writing class I had at California
Lutheran University. (My professor said it
was an example of how a bad author could
15
eventually write something good).
Toward the end of the book, Koontz refers
to a virus that originates in Wuhan, China,
that had similar characteristics to COVID-
19. His story explains how the virus infected
millions of people around the world, causing
many deaths, and went away as suddenly as
it appeared in the world, only to mutate and
resurface 10 years later with a vengeance.
I wouldn9t go so far as to say Koontz was
the <Nostradamus= of the 1980s, but histori-
cally, it is an amazing prediction.
On social media recently, I noticed an
increase in people referring to this virus as
not that serious, often referencing the SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002
that also originated in bats spread to 26 coun-
tries, and had a kill ratio of 10 percent. MERS,
(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) 2012,
may have originated in Saudi Arabia from
bats, to camels, then humans. There were two
cases in the US, with both surviving. MERS
was said to have had a kill ratio of 34 percent.
While it is true patients have been surviv-
ing COVID-19 infection, I am concerned with
people being too complacent, too early. I per-
sonally think our numbers are down because
we have been cautious and practicing social
distancing.
The newest, similar to, but, mutated virus
that infected several children recently is
alarming. I am very optimistic that science
will be able to create a safe vaccine. It is not
an easy <Dr. Kildare= or <Ben Casey= fix, and
it9s all better (yes, that dates me!)
Be safe.
Bill Anttila
Serving Sisters Since 1976
Thank you, Sisters,
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