Bringing a community together while keeping them physically distanced
A table that a convenience store in Spruce Grove put up to keep employees and customers physically distanced during the pandemic has become a symbol of community.
When the pandemic began, many stores began putting up Plexiglas screens to help keep people safe.
At Century Convenience in Spruce Grove, they wanted to do something different as the screens felt like they were shutting the customers out, according to the co-owner. Instead, one of the owners of the store and a customer built a table to put in front of the check-out counter.
“I thought maybe people would get mad because of the distance and everything… but everyone’s loved it so much and they don’t want us moving from here,” said Jaskiran Kaleka, the co-owner of Century Convenience.
“I went and got paint it to kind of match the counter but then people came in and started asking, ‘Can I sign it?’”
The table is covered with names and notes from customers, some from as far away as B.C.
Notes on a table at a Spruce Grove convenience store. Sunday Jan 16, 2022 (CTV News Edmonton)
“I’m so thankful for the people in Spruce Grove here, I can’t thank them enough, they’re really beautiful people,” said Kaleka. “They’ve helped us through the pandemic so much, we didn’t even think that we’d be still keeping our door open.”
Once the pandemic is over, Kaleka plans to put the tabletop turned keepsake on display on the wall.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.