While all of us are excited to get back, the safety of all those who attend The Yard has and always will be our top priority. Below you will find some safety guidelines that will be implemented. We have also made several upgrades to our facilities over the past few months in order to try and make the environment as safe as possible for all.

-The hallways now have HEPA air filtration systems that filter out viruses and other contaminants from the air- they filter out the entire volume of air in the building several times per hour.

-Research has shown that viral transmission is less in higher humidity, the optimal range to minimize transmission is 40%-60% relative humidity, we now track this and have increased the humidity in both facilities to this range.

-We installed a central HVAC ionization system in the facility. This system simulates the ionic processes found outdoors and actively neutralizes viruses in the classroom air.

-We have replaced and upgraded the HVAC filters in the facility.

-We have adjusted the HVAC intakes to bring in more outside air into the building.

-Our fields have 40’ ceilings which encompass large amounts of circulating air relative to rooms with lower ceilings.

-All staff are screened for symptoms daily and have their temperature checked each time they enter the building.

Field Space and hallways

-Athletes and coaches, when not on the fields, must wear a mask while anywhere else in the building – including bathrooms.

-Athletes and coaches have the choice to wear a facemask while they are on the fields. 

-Our staff will clean high traffic areas between field rentals

-Entrance doors, field doors, bathroom doors and other high traffic areas will be cleaned frequently. We try to prop open as many doors as possible to limit the amount of times people will touch them. 

-Every field rental will be supplied with a spray bottle and rag if they need it at any time.

-There will be no congregating, waiting or loitering in the hallways pre or post rental – as traffic must be kept moving

-All athletes need to bring their belongings onto the field or boxes – not left on the track or in hallways.

Entrance/Exit

–When located in a region under Tier 2 or more restrictive mitigation efforts per the Restore Illinois guidelines:

–No spectators are allowed, whether indoors or outdoors. Page 7 – Restore Illinois: Winter Updates to All Sports Policy

–Parents are welcome to walk their child inside to the front desk no sooner than 5 minutes before their program starts. Anyone entering earlier will be asked to leave and return at the appropriate time.

–Parents are asked to pick up their kids from the outside walkway or the front desk. We do not want children walking across the parking lot  unattended.

–The time that you have the facility rented is the time you are allowed in the facility. Groups can enter 5 minutes prior to their start time.

–Please be respectful of your ending time and be off your field at the time your rental is finished. There is NO lingering in the hallways/track areas so please calculate time for your athletes to gather their belongings/change if needed. 

–Suggestions for entering/exiting the building will be provided based on current rentals. When multiple teams are starting/ending at the same time alternate exits may need to be used.

Renters Responsibilities

–Ensuring ALL athletes and coaches have passed the CDC provided screening questions, as well as having a temperature less than 100.4 degrees. Note: ALL information should be documented daily by the renter. *the reverse side of this form must be completed and turned in every day you rent with us

–Renter will let The Yard know if ANYONE has come into contact with a COVID-19 case and understand that their rental is cancelled until approved to come back.

–The renter will be responsible for communicating these rules to their athletes and enforcing them.

–If anyone in the building tests positive for COVID-19 the facility will be shut down for deep cleaning of the fields and all other areas. If we have to close, a field credit will be issued to your account.

–All fields are a 50-person capacity (Group size for each half is 25)

Dear Active Childcare, After School Sports, and Yard Families,

I hope all is going well for you. We have now completed our sixth week of being open for daycare and summer camps and I just wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going and improvements we have made. We have been following the research around coronavirus and have been doing all that we can to minimize the risks to our children and staff. Below are some of the highlights of our efforts:

Programming.

We have shifted our programming to get the children outside as much as possible.

• Students go outside several times a day for activities
• We have set up open-air outdoor tents to allow the children to do craft projects and eat lunch outside
• We have built a half-mile nature walk at Naperville Yard with a bird viewing area that the children are enjoying
• Classes are held on our outdoor fields (weather permitting)

Indoor Improvements.

We have spent a lot of time, effort, and money making the indoor environment as safe as possible. Much of this effort is engaging technology to replicate the natural cleansing properties found in the outdoor environment (see the below section for a research overview on indoor air risk mitigation strategies).

• All of the classrooms now have HEPA air filtration systems that filter out viruses and other contaminants from the air- they filter out the entire volume of air in the classroom several times per hour.
• Research has shown that viral transmission is less in higher humidity, the optimal range to minimize transmission is 40%-60% relative humidity, we now track this and have increased the humidity in both facilities to this range.
• This week we are installing a central HVAC ionization system in both facilities. This system simulates the ionic processes found outdoors and actively neutralizes viruses in the classroom air.
• We have installed an upper room UVGI system in the After School Sports room at Westmont Yard. This system simulates sunlight and uses ultraviolet light to kill viruses as air circulates to the upper portions of the room.
• We have replaced and upgraded the HVAC filters at both facilities.
• We have adjusted the HVAC intakes to bring in more outside air into the building.
• All of our classrooms have outdoor windows and our fields have extensive skylights that bring in natural light throughout the building.
• Our fields have 40’ ceilings which encompass large amounts of circulating air relative to rooms with lower ceilings, which is a natural health advantage for our students relative to smaller buildings.

Policies & Protocols.

We continue to implement and upgrade all of the policies and protocols that we communicated to you in our pre-opening email.

• Temperature checks at check-in, anyone with a temperature above 100.4 is sent home
• Small groups of 10-15 children or less, groups are the same for the entire week and led by the same coachHand sanitization stations located throughout the building, students wash hands and sanitize frequently
• Hourly sanitization of high-touch surfaces, we implemented a spray/fogging system for large areas (e.g. fields)
• Sanitization of equipment between user groups
• Children social distance as much as possible, and wear masks in rooms when social distancing is not achievable
• Parents and vendors not allowed past check-in desks
• Any child showing symptoms is removed from program, put in isolation, and must be picked up by parents
• Sick children must be symptom free for 72hrs before returning to the program
• Families or children that travel to high-risk zones must quarantine for 14 days before returning any program

Research.

There are a host of strategies available to reduce viruses in indoor air, with various levels of efficacy. We have read up on the research to determine the most effective strategies for us to employ.  Here is a link to a research report from ASHRAE (HVAC industry regulatory group) summarizing the research around the various risk mitigation strategies with recommendations on which ones to use. Below are excerpts relevant to some of the strategies The Yard has implemented:

• When appropriately selected and deployed, single-space high-efficiency filtration units (either ceiling mounted or portable) can be highly effective in reducing/lowering concentrations of infectious aerosols in a single space.
• The entire ultraviolet (UV) spectrum can kill or inactivate microorganisms, but UV-C energy (in the wavelengths from 200 to 280 nm) provides the most germicidal effect, with 265 nm being the optimum wavelength. The majority of modern UVGI lamps create UV-C energy at a near optimum 254 nm wavelength. UVGI inactivates microorganisms by damaging the structure of nucleic acids and proteins with the effectiveness dependent upon the UV dose and the susceptibility of the microorganism. The safety of UV-C is well known.
• In addition, immunobiologists have correlated mid-range humidity levels with improved mammalian immunity against respiratory infections (Taylor and Tasi 2018). Mousavi et al. (2019) report that the scientific literature generally reflects the most unfavorable survival for microorganisms when the RH is between 40% and 60% (Evidence Level B).

I know everyone is busy, this is just a brief overview of all that we have been doing to make our environment safe for all of our constituents. We are closely monitoring the various school district plans for the fall and will be offering full-day and after-school programming that is complementary to school schedules. Please email us if you have any questions or need any additional information. Thanks to all of you for your help and support as we get through this!

Bill Gust
The Yard

Dear Active Childcare, After School Sports, and Yard Families,

I hope all is going well for you. We have now completed our sixth week of being open for daycare and summer camps and I just wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going and improvements we have made. We have been following the research around coronavirus and have been doing all that we can to minimize the risks to our children and staff. Below are some of the highlights of our efforts:

Programming.

We have shifted our programming to get the children outside as much as possible.

• Students go outside several times a day for activities
• We have set up open-air outdoor tents to allow the children to do craft projects and eat lunch outside
• We have built a half-mile nature walk at Naperville Yard with a bird viewing area that the children are enjoying
• Classes are held on our outdoor fields (weather permitting)

Indoor Improvements.

We have spent a lot of time, effort, and money making the indoor environment as safe as possible. Much of this effort is engaging technology to replicate the natural cleansing properties found in the outdoor environment (see the below section for a research overview on indoor air risk mitigation strategies).

• All of the classrooms now have HEPA air filtration systems that filter out viruses and other contaminants from the air- they filter out the entire volume of air in the classroom several times per hour.
• Research has shown that viral transmission is less in higher humidity, the optimal range to minimize transmission is 40%-60% relative humidity, we now track this and have increased the humidity in both facilities to this range.
• This week we are installing a central HVAC ionization system in both facilities. This system simulates the ionic processes found outdoors and actively neutralizes viruses in the classroom air.
• We have installed an upper room UVGI system in the After School Sports room at Westmont Yard. This system simulates sunlight and uses ultraviolet light to kill viruses as air circulates to the upper portions of the room.
• We have replaced and upgraded the HVAC filters at both facilities.
• We have adjusted the HVAC intakes to bring in more outside air into the building.
• All of our classrooms have outdoor windows and our fields have extensive skylights that bring in natural light throughout the building.
• Our fields have 40’ ceilings which encompass large amounts of circulating air relative to rooms with lower ceilings, which is a natural health advantage for our students relative to smaller buildings.

Policies & Protocols.

We continue to implement and upgrade all of the policies and protocols that we communicated to you in our pre-opening email.

• Temperature checks at check-in, anyone with a temperature above 100.4 is sent home
• Small groups of 10-15 children or less, groups are the same for the entire week and led by the same coachHand sanitization stations located throughout the building, students wash hands and sanitize frequently
• Hourly sanitization of high-touch surfaces, we implemented a spray/fogging system for large areas (e.g. fields)
• Sanitization of equipment between user groups
• Children social distance as much as possible, and wear masks in rooms when social distancing is not achievable
• Parents and vendors not allowed past check-in desks
• Any child showing symptoms is removed from program, put in isolation, and must be picked up by parents
• Sick children must be symptom free for 72hrs before returning to the program
• Families or children that travel to high-risk zones must quarantine for 14 days before returning any program

Research.

There are a host of strategies available to reduce viruses in indoor air, with various levels of efficacy. We have read up on the research to determine the most effective strategies for us to employ.  Here is a link to a research report from ASHRAE (HVAC industry regulatory group) summarizing the research around the various risk mitigation strategies with recommendations on which ones to use. Below are excerpts relevant to some of the strategies The Yard has implemented:

• When appropriately selected and deployed, single-space high-efficiency filtration units (either ceiling mounted or portable) can be highly effective in reducing/lowering concentrations of infectious aerosols in a single space.
• The entire ultraviolet (UV) spectrum can kill or inactivate microorganisms, but UV-C energy (in the wavelengths from 200 to 280 nm) provides the most germicidal effect, with 265 nm being the optimum wavelength. The majority of modern UVGI lamps create UV-C energy at a near optimum 254 nm wavelength. UVGI inactivates microorganisms by damaging the structure of nucleic acids and proteins with the effectiveness dependent upon the UV dose and the susceptibility of the microorganism. The safety of UV-C is well known.
• In addition, immunobiologists have correlated mid-range humidity levels with improved mammalian immunity against respiratory infections (Taylor and Tasi 2018). Mousavi et al. (2019) report that the scientific literature generally reflects the most unfavorable survival for microorganisms when the RH is between 40% and 60% (Evidence Level B).

I know everyone is busy, this is just a brief overview of all that we have been doing to make our environment safe for all of our constituents. We are closely monitoring the various school district plans for the fall and will be offering full-day and after-school programming that is complementary to school schedules. Please email us if you have any questions or need any additional information. Thanks to all of you for your help and support as we get through this!

Bill Gust
The Yard