SENIOR SCAPE: Older Adults please take a bow

July 13, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jim L. Abram

We have so much to be proud of during the past twelve months at the Aurora Seniors Centre! The Board and all of the wonderful volunteers have served the membership admirably during the 2015 – 2016 Board term.
The balance sheet is sound as we have delivered services, programs, events and activities at an unprecedented rate of enrollment and participation served by an army of volunteers who volunteer only to better the quality of life of our seniors in and around Aurora.
A few of the various accomplishments at the Aurora Seniors Centre are worthy of note.
We have successfully negotiated a renewed operating agreement for the Centre with our Town that benefits both the ASA members and the Town of Aurora with an appreciation of the value added to the quality of life of older adults in Aurora. We contributed to the Town’s five-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan to ensure seniors’ issues are kept top of mind in the interests of the Town’s future planning process.
We celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Aurora Seniors’ Centre at our best-in-class facility! This is a testament to the wonderful volunteers and Town staff who keep the programs going and the lights on!
We also had a well deserved volunteer recognition celebration which included a tasty pig roast to recognize the contributions of our many volunteers. If you don’t volunteer at one of the various opportunities to do so in Aurora, I urge you to do so as it is quite rewarding.
We are in discussions with the new local radio station, AURORA RADIO – CHRA 101.5 (set your dial!). Listen soon to hear more commentary on seniors’ issues, events and commentary as well as entertaining music from our famous Evergreen Choir.
We have invested and spent money wisely. We have new furniture in the lounge for the comfort and enjoyment of our members. We have a new fridge for our Social Club use to replace the 1970s model fridge that had outlived its usefulness. We have a safe and well equipped wood shop and updated card tables, sewing, Billiard, Pickleball, Bocce and other fixtures and equipment throughout the Centre to ensure the continued good health and enjoyment by all individuals and groups.
We recorded 40,000 visits to the Centre in 2015. We had over 17,000 visits to the ASA website with over 50,000 pages viewed and the website is updated three to four times per month thanks to our computer club volunteers. Over 47,000 volunteer hours were recorded to December 2015. Thank you so much to all our volunteers!
The woodshop has not been idly standing by either! Contributions from the woodshop include the creation of the tee boxes for the Pan Am Games golfing competition, the planter boxes for the Centre and for the CHATS therapeutic garden and for creative scary stuff for the Halloween Haunted Forest, just to mention a few. Not to mention the Maple Leaf Forever pens, made from wood from the historic tree felled in Toronto, presented to outstanding individuals in our community. We also hosted a very successful, but icy, Easter Egg Hunt! We older adults play well with other kids.
We participated in and continue to participate in the CHATS Walk for Wellness which raises funds to support CHATS seniors programs and services in York Region.
We maintained our representation with Sport Aurora in the Year of Sport and continue to promote sport with our bocce courts, indoor gym programs and of course indoor and outdoor Pickleball! We are continuing to look for more space for seniors’ activities and programs to meet the growing wants and needs of older adults in Aurora.
And many thanks go to the creative and dedicated horticulturalists that tend to the gardens around our centre! They look great.
This is just a snapshot of all of the great things our Seniors’ Centre contributes to our Community we call Aurora thanks to our members, volunteers and town staff. This column space is too small to capture all the wonderful accomplishments that we observe done by each and every one of our “hero” volunteers every day.
My last word for my term of office as President of the Aurora Seniors’ Association: If you are not already a member of the Aurora Seniors’ Centre but you wish to join to enjoy friendship and an active, healthy and joyful environment, please come by to see what we’re all about!
It has been a true pleasure to serve as President and I am very proud to announce that the new President is Carol Hedenberg. I will continue to serve as Vice President and Carol and I and the rest of the Board of Directors of the Aurora Seniors’ Centre very much look forward to the year ahead.
For more information on the Aurora Seniors’ Centre and all it has to offer, drop by 90 John West Way, visit the web site www.auroraseniors.ca, email auroraseniors@rogers.com or call 905-726-4767 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.