Denali Education Center Balances COVID Testing and Normal Summer Activities

For about a year, Denali Education Center has taken the task of being a COVID-19 testing center in addition to its normal nonprofit activities.  DEC staff has administered tests to locals and visitors and have seen many ebbs and flows in the pandemic.

As of earlier this month, testing numbers were down, and most people coming to take a COVID test were locals.  Even as testing numbers fell, stories spread through the area about many people having the disease.  Often, those people found out they had COVID after living their lives almost as they had before the pandemic.

DEC Executive Director Jodi Rodwell says she has definitely seen a shift in perceptions around COVID-19

“I feel like the general thing that you’re hearing out there is, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal,’ right?  Like, ‘People are getting it, but they’re not getting very sick. It’s like a flu.’ But then again, people are getting sick.  I also know people who are real sick and have some pretty terrible symptoms.  And they’re not getting hospitalized, but they are not well.”

As the pandemic has moved through multiple variants, the trend has been versions of the disease that are easier to spread but perhaps less severe.  That has meant going back to business as usual for many, including Denali Education Center.  Rodwell says getting closer to normal while still maintaining testing has been a balancing act.

“When we have staff meetings, and we’re talking about our educational programs on campus with kids and camps and community presentations and our facilities and ‘Oh, how is COVID testing going?’”

Testing at Denali Education Center had been funded by the state.  That money ran out in July, but a grant from Mat-Su Health Foundation means testing will continue through the end of September.

More information on scheduling a COVID-19 test can be found at Denali.org.