The Christmas tradition was frustrated as the pandemic swept the Kansas countryside.

Cancellation of the beloved Christmas draw in Norcatur, Kansas spotlighted a global coronavirus pandemic that extended to the American countryside.

Belle Plaine, Kansas-As time goes by in the windswept grasslands of northwestern Kansas, it’s almost no longer a town. COVID-19 is still managed to find no-katers.

With the exception of service stations, grain elevators, small museums, and weekend hangouts where locals play in the pool, eat pizza, and drink beer, there aren’t many ruins in rural settlements. The roof of a crumbling building that once had banks and general stores collapsed. The school was closed decades ago and the former high school building is now used as a city hall.

But for the remaining 150 residents, the cancellation of their beloved Norcatur Christmas Drawing is global. Coronavirus The pandemic extends to the American countryside.

“It was determined that it was unsafe for no-caters and local citizens to move forward for individuals who have a COVID and refuse to quarantine at home,” hidden in the town newsletter. I read the newsletter and posted it on my Facebook page. It accused “the negligent attitude of lack of concern for others” for cancellation.

In a decades-old tradition that evokes the nostalgia of Norman Rockwell, the entire town usually gathers for a Christmas bring-your-own dinner. The painting of the same name is full of donated meat, crafts and other merchandise, and every family can go home with a prize. A local 4-H club will have a bake sale. Santa Claus comes in a fire engine.

Decatur County has less than 3,000 people scattered across farms and small towns like Norcatur. As of Monday, the county had 194 cases of coronavirus and one death, but healthcare providers have at least four deaths of locals who have not yet been added to the official tolls. Is called.

Carolyn Bessette, 73, who lives in Nocator, has two former high school classmates living in the county who are asymptomatic and only found to be COVID-19 positive when tested for medical procedures in October. Said died. Of the virus. Her husband also tested positive.

“It was very realistic for me,” she said.

Plot wondered if the cancellation notice was “talking about me.” During the quarantine, she only left the house wearing a mask with the permission of her doctor to take care of a friend who was locked up in a house that still believed the pandemic was a hoax.

Karl Lyon, the mayor of Nocator, who plays the role of Santa every year, said most residents were “quite good” about social distance and wearing masks, but some were infected with the virus.

“I know some people had it and they were still running around,” Lyon said. “It didn’t look like they bothered them that they had infected everyone else.”

Decatur County Sheriff Ken Badsky estimated that 5% of county residents in need of quarantine would go out in violation of restrictions. His office called some and “insisted on doing what they were supposed to do,” but took no legal action.

“There’s a lot more to do. I don’t have time to follow the people around me,” Badsky said. “We are 900 square miles, we have three full-time police officers and a part-time person who takes care of them, and we are busy with everything else.”

Such feelings offend health care providers, including the proliferation of coronavirus cases and the filling of hospitals throughout the state, making it more difficult to find beds for the most ill patients.

“We are looking for people who need some help to stop this virus and need to do their job to do it, and otherwise this is rampant and I It will put more pressure on our hospital, “said Chris Matthews, administrator of Decatur Health, a small critical access hospital in Oberlin, 19 miles west of Noker.

Stan Miller, a Christmas drawing announcer for over 25 years, has mixed feelings about the decision to abandon it this year. A 63-year-old no-cater resident said he understood that some elderly people did not want to be infected with the virus. But that’s also a shame.

“I like to see all the joy, especially the little ones,” Miller said. “After the painting is over, there’s Santa Claus. Whenever I see them sitting on Santa’s lap and telling them what they want for Christmas, a smile comes to my face.”