Hermosa Beach’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Hearts of Hermosa education fundraiser canceled due to coronavirus
Hermosa Cyclery Steve Collins leads the “Bike Hermosa” entry in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade each year. This year’s parade has been canceled. Photo
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Hearts of Hermosa education foundation fundraiser, two beloved civic events associated with spring in Hermosa Beach, have been canceled, officials announced Thursday, as a precautionary measure to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The Hermosa events were part of a wave of cancellations in the South Bay. Also on Thursday, Redondo Beach announced the cancellation of its St. Patrick’s Day 5-K run, and El Camino College announced that it was stopping in-person classes in favor of online instruction.
Hermosa City Manager Suja Lowenthal said that the decision to cancel the parade was not made lightly, and said that entities public and private have an obligation to reduce the minimize the spread of the disease.
“If we’ve learned anything from watching our global partners, it’s that containment is everyone’s job,” Lowenthal said in an interview.
On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state public health officials ordered the postponement or cancellation of gatherings of more than 250 people. At a news conference Thursday morning, Newsom said 198 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus. Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the county’s first death from coronavirus; that patient was the fourth death overall from coronavirus in the state.
Jonalyn Morris, a board member with the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation, said that the board had been monitoring the situation, but was moved to act following Newsom’s Wednesday announcement.
“You see that, and at that point, there’s no going back,” Morris said. “At that point, you absolutely cannot have an event that in any way compromises the health or wellbeing of families in the community.”
Both of the cancellations come with significant financial implications.
Of the roughly $1 million that HBEF provided to the Hermosa Beach City School District last year, about $275,000 came from the Hearts of Hermosa Fundraiser, Morris said. Much of that is raised through an auction, and although they physical event has been cancelled, the auction will still take place this year, in online form, with a link for bidding expected to be available on HBEF’s website early next week.
The losses to area businesses associated with the cancellation of the parade will be harder to replace. Maureen Hunt, president and CEO fo the Hermosa Chamber, said that the chamber and the city had been monitoring the coronavirus situation with the parade for more than a week, but ultimately agreed to cancel it out of an abundance of caution.
“We waited and waited ‘til the last possible moment. I think in our hearts we knew we had to cancel. But so many people calling saying they wanted it to continue,” Hunt said.
The parade, which had been scheduled for this Saturday, was entering its 26th year. It typically features school marching bands, civic organizations and elected officials in classic cars rolling along the parade route down Pier Avenue and then heading south on Hermosa Avenue.
Hunt said that the chamber was also considering canceling the sidewalk sale, scheduled to take place Saturday afternoon after the conclusion of the parade. While she remains attentive to the health risks, she said that she was trying to balance the needs of businesses who may be hurt by the cancellation of the parade.
“This is my dilemma. Our businesses are hurting so bad. I’ve just been receiving so many calls from disappointed businesses, especially restaurants and bars. This is what they were counting on because it’s been a slow winter. This is what they were counting on, and they’d stocked up for this,” Hunt said of the parade. “I’m trying to get the opinions of everyone. It’s a gray area, because [the sidewalk sale] is not one event, it’s scattered. It may not be quite as bad as if you did have one big event.”
Public health officials say that canceling events is a particularly valuable public health strategy because, by limiting contact, it slows the spread of the disease. While the total time between a disease’s emergence and containment may be longer, slowing its spread minimizes the number of cases at one time and gives the medical system more time to respond. This prevents hospitals and emergency rooms from being overloaded, a phenomenon known in public health circles as “flattening the curve.”
“The timely implementation of aggressive strategies that create social distance and those that reduce close contact of people not regularly together, including limiting gatherings, has proven effective in prior pandemics at delaying rates of transmission and reducing illness and death,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement.
Lowenthal echoed these comments Thursday when asked about local residents who, in response to concerns about the virus, were making runs on grocery stores and stockpiling supplies. She said that while “retail anxiety” was a common response to natural disasters, there was no reason to fear that the virus would lead to breakdowns in supply chains.
“Thankfully this is not a disaster where we have to expect limitations on our energy or water resources. When we feel anxious, what we have to do is not overwhelm the healthcare system,” she said. “The scarcity is not going to be there with toilet paper, it’s not going to be with water, it won’t be with hand sanitizer, but with healthcare. Containing this means minimizing the spread as much as we can and not overwhelm our medical system.”
Morris, of HBEF, said that the board had already had an active fundraising year, pointing to donations from community members, including $25,000 from the Stephanie and Peter Nolan Foundation. But she added that the effects of the event go beyond the school system because many local businesses were to be involved serving drinks and food. The board plans to include more local gift certificates and experience opportunities in its auction, in an attempt to mitigate the effect that the coronavirus was having on Hermosa.
“I think the irony is that, with so much uncertainty, sometimes an event like this could have been wonderful distraction,” she said.