As the Addison Trail community prepared to celebrate their annual November traditions, many faced the challenge of adapting to the current pandemic, Covid-19.
Many states have authorized stay at home orders/advisories due to the fear of rising cases. The CDC reports there were at least one million cases of the coronavirus in just the last seven days of Thanksgiving break (CDC).
Health care professionals worry that many will become sick over the course of December resulting in higher cases towards Christmas time due to the high amount of traveling through Thanksgiving.
As cases continue to rise, residents of Addison celebrated their annual Thanksgiving traditions, however in an isolated state. Junior Ayme Aguilar said “Our new plan for celebrating Thanksgiving this year was to help our mom make dinner. Usually all of our cousins, aunts, and uncles that live in Chicago come together to celebrate at my house. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do so this year since many of my older relatives are at high risk for Covid. We have decided that it is best to celebrate Thanksgiving on our own.”
In addition to the Thanksgiving festivities, many Blazers found themselves contemplating whether or not they should participate in the Black Friday shopping, which consists of rare sales at stores.
Junior Dominik Trendyk said, “We didn’t do Black Friday this year because we thought, as much fun as it is fighting over a flat-screen sound, it’s not worth getting sick over.” The rising cases in Illinois, let alone Dupage County has raised a concern towards many of their Black Friday shopping experiences.
Many sources have confirmed a rise in online shopping as of this year compared to previous years. The rise of cases in the pandemic has feared many people including concerns towards their and families health and safety.
With online shopping adding a convenience factor in the current state of the struggling pandemic, Aguilar shares her concerns stating “I love Black Friday shopping, but this year I will be shopping online. I have never done Black Friday shopping online because I like to browse in person and try some clothes on so it will be interesting to see how this goes. I’m praying that the stores offer some good deals for online shoppers this year because I am kind of scared of shopping in-person around large groups of people.”
Blazers who would traditionally find themselves in the aisles of stores on Black Friday instead searched their favorite stores online finding some great deals. Freshman Humza Naseeruddin said, “I never really shop online for Black Friday but instead go in person to stores. However this year I decided to shop online and found some pretty good deals on shoes and video games. I wanted to go shopping in person with my siblings but due to my grandfather’s underlying medical conditions, I wanted to be safe at home regarding my family’s health.”
Although many individuals are wondering when we will return to a sense of normalcy, Pfizer has recently announced information on their vaccine, giving people some hope of returning to their normal holiday traditions.
