The BIC Center has now resumed all pre-shutdown activities except for movies showings (which remain restricted by the governor’s executive orders).  We are abiding by the rules imposed in the re-opening orders with limits on the number of people in the building, requirements for “family pod” based social distancing and masks required when moving about the Community Center.  We’ve established protocols for resuming Pickleball (when it must come inside for bad weather) and, by popular demand, have restarted the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program.  We expect to start-up summer Yoga classes on schedule, albeit with more limited capacity and, perhaps, not everyone working on the stage as has been the case in years past.  In short, there are some differences, but we are doing our best to make the resource of the Community Center once again available to the community.  Our opening times are 9 to 5 Monday through Saturday.  We expect to start being open on Sundays in mid-June.  Our summer performance events have been deferred until August with Dave Bennett expected here for Homecoming—subject to rules in place at that time.  We will keep you posted, but for now we are planning to proceed with the schedule displayed with this post.

While we have reopened the center, it does not appear likely at this time that we will be able to hold our traditional Summer Solstice dinner on June 20.  The logistics of doing that in a way that would comply with the requirements imposed open us simply make that impossible.  We hope we will be able to provide a thank you dinner for our donors and volunteers (served by our board, as is the tradition) later this summer or very early in the fall.  We will keep you posted.  Likewise, plans for our annual Gala Dinner are up in the air, but the auction that is part of the dinner (and part of summer in the lobby of the BIC Center) is on!  We are moving to an all on-line auction this year hosted right here on the BIC Center website.  We are taking in auction items now (please contact us if you would like to donate something) and expect to bring the auction site online and see bidding begin on June 20.  The Auction will close on August 5.  You can go to auction.biccenter.org for a preview now, and come back on the 20th to start bidding.  As for the Gala dinner, we have something special in the works even if we are unable to hold it in person.  Check back here for details or join or mailing list to get the latest word in your inbox.

We wish returning islanders a warm “Welcome Home” and look forward to seeing you at your Beaver Island Community Center when you are comfortable returning to see us. In the meantime, you can keep up to date by visiting our website at bicenter.org an by listening to WVBI, our community radio station, at 100.1 FM on the island, on your smart device with “Play WVBI,” and on the net worldwide at wvbi.net.