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COVID-19: Mount Dora goes virtual with art show, QuaRANtine 5K

Runners pay $22 to participate the QuaRANtine Virtual 5K and receive a unique medal. Photo: Mount Dora via Facebook
Runners pay $22 to participate the QuaRANtine Virtual 5K and receive a unique medal. Photo: Mount Dora via Facebook

Love art? Love athletics? Mount Dora can help you fill a few moments of all this unwanted time alone.

The Leisure Services staff -- suddenly without soccer games, after school programs and festivals -- cooked up a virtual 5K and a virtual art show.

The QuaRANtine Virtual 5K helps people get out and exercise while maintaining social distance.

"This gives them a way to, you know, if they have a competitive side in them, or if they have a side in them that wants to find something that drives them in order to help them stay active," sports coordinator Michael Davis said. "And that’s basically what this is for."

They’ll race alone in early May, upload their times and then receive a medal by mail. The medal has a googly-eyed microbe in a face mask.

Youth and Family Supervisor Megan Mathews started the art show for kids but soon opened it up to artists of all ages and skill levels.

"We want people to just at least have a moment of positivity and so we put inspirational messages out there, we spread stuff on our Facebook," she said. "But honestly, to me one of the greatest things (is) to look at a thing of beauty. And that really is what these artists have provided for us."

Eighty artists present 200 works on therecreation department’s Facebook page. Another show is planned for May.

Joe Byrnes came to WMFE/WMFV from the Ocala Star-Banner and The Gainesville Sun, where he worked as a reporter and editor for several years. Joe graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans and turned to journalism after teaching. He enjoys freshwater fishing and family gatherings.