With the COVID-19 pandemic now into its second year, many yuletide activities remain limited. At least one Eugene group is keeping their outreach virtual.
“Poolie’s Angels” was formed over five years ago. It has superhero cosplayers who’ve normally done charity and civic events across Eugene and Oregon, often with other local cosplayers and Caesar the No Drama Llama.
The group's founder, Cory Cailteux, headlines as the Marvel Comics anti-hero, Deadpool. He says his group’s scaled back on appearances and public events to keep themselves and audiences safe.
“We are at this point still only doing online events, Zoom calls, videos for people, by request,” he told KLCC.
Cailteux said they keep assessing the situation, routinely tracking COVID-19 case numbers, variants, and surges. Everyone in Poolie's Angels is eager to resume regular appearances at the Greenhill Humane Society, Radar Toys, and local hospitals.
“Obviously we haven’t been walking those halls getting to go in and say hello and help kids in a really rough spot have at least a moment of joy in the midst of all that," he said.
"And now we’re coming up on 800,000 Americans that have died. That’s not a number that we want to add to in any way.”
Cailteux says they're especially careful because many children in their fan base are "medically fragile" and therefore more vulnerable than most. And he's aware that with the rise in holiday activities, there are opportunities for COVID to spread and pose a health risk to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people depending on the scale of an event.
Such caution is warranted. A New York anime convention has become a case study in the new omicron variant after several attendees tested positive for it.
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