Ephrata Community Donates COVID Tests to Get Schools Sports Restarted

All of the Ephrata School District's middle and high school athletic programs are back in action after the district received enough COVID tests from the community to resume activities.

The district was forced to pause all non-varsity sports and cheer teams Tuesday because of a lack of required tests.

Superintendent Tim Payne said that community members had delivered 1,000 tests by Wednesday morning and so the pause was lifted.

"Around the region we haven't seen anything like this." explained Payne, "Mead School District is Spokane actually shut down for a period of team because they didn't have tests. I had to make the same tough announcement here and before a single kid missed a game the community rallied and the kids will play their games this week."

All middle and high school sports and cheer programs returned to practice by Wednesday afternoon with the exception of Unified Basketball, which will return to practice Thursday.

The district also worked to ensure that athletes were not penalized for missing practice Wednesday because of the rapidly-changing situation.