{"id":10964,"date":"2015-06-10T23:23:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T03:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10964"},"modified":"2015-06-10T23:23:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T03:23:54","slug":"t-e-a-m-work-reigns-in-the-house-that-charles-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/t-e-a-m-work-reigns-in-the-house-that-charles-built\/","title":{"rendered":"T.E.A.M.work reigns in the House that Charles Built"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Charles Sequeira sat down for a chat with The Auroran last week, the talk was punctuated by a constant chatter from all corners of the lounge, by bells guiding rounds during a nearby bridge game, and a steady flow of visitors ready grabbing a cup of coffee or meeting up with a friend.<\/p>\n

The scene was a far cry from what Mr. Sequeira encountered well over a decade ago when he first stepped into the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre when it was located on Victoria Street. It was a struggle for his wife, Lucille, to even get him to darken that doorstep when he was in his late 50s and recently retired, but after picking her up one day there was no turning back.<\/p>\n

As President of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association (ASA), Mr. Sequeira has been instrumental in its growth from the then 450 members to a roster of now beyond 1,300 active members, spanning generations from 55 to 102, and in securing their comparatively new home on John West Way.<\/p>\n

Last week, Mr. Sequeira hung up his hat as the organization\u2019s president, handing the reins over to Jim Abram after the ASA Annual General Meeting on Thursday. But, in doing so, he looks back on a mission that has undoubtedly been accomplished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always believe in the TEAM concept \u2013 Together Everyone Achieves More,\u201d says Mr. Sequeira. \u201cI feel like it has come to a stage where we have done what we\u2019re expected to do. We went to Council meetings and they used to say, \u2018Who is going to come here? It is too far for seniors. We need to have it in Downtown Aurora.\u2019 We debated and debated, did a survey of people who would come, but it worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to join the Seniors\u2019 Centre at the old place; I didn\u2019t think I was a senior but after I went there and saw an old friend of mine, he took me around and showed me the computer club, and I wanted to improve my computer knowledge. One thing just led to another. At the old place you couldn\u2019t do much. You could only play cards and play pool, along with the Friday night dances and socials. The Town was already working on the Old Library and the [Town offered us that]. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe came on and we told Al Downey it was not going to be any good because after five years we were going to come back and ask for another place. He said, \u2018I don\u2019t think so. This is the only place we had.\u2019 It went on and on and finally we went to Council and John West spoke up and said, \u2018What about the place in front of Town Hall? We have all the land there. Can\u2019t we give the seniors something there?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerned that was just a line of \u201cB.S.\u201d, Mr. Sequeira went to Mr. Downey for confirmation, he recalls. Mr. Downey said it was true but realistically the Town was not going to hand over the land for a new Seniors\u2019 Centre. Persistence, however, paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a very calm and patient person, I don\u2019t get uptight very fast \u2013 and some of these qualities are good when you\u2019re working with the Town,\u201d says Mr. Sequeira with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Over his tenure as president of the ASA, Mr. Sequeira says the incorporation of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association was a milestone step in particular because it has granted them a significant degree of independence from the Town of Aurora. Unlike the Newmarket Seniors\u2019 Centre, which is very much an arm of the municipality, being an incorporation allows the ASA to apply for grant funding. They might have to abide by the rules of using a municipal facility, but they are given a long leash. Another important factor, looping back to that TEAM principle, is fostering a \u201cfriendly\u201d environment that welcomes volunteers.<\/p>\n

Evidently it is a winning formula as one of Mr. Sequeira\u2019s last acts as president was to implement a new Five Year Plan charting not only the future needs of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, but how these needs can address the needs of Aurora\u2019s senior population as a whole. <\/p>\n

That \u201cfriendly\u201d atmosphere has been a double-edged sword, conspiring to create an environment that is lacking in elbow room. Parking in the lot shared by the Centre and Town Hall has become a particular hot button issue, as has room within the building. They are running out of space and although new space at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex and other outdoor amenities around Town have alleviated some of that pressure, they need more. A possible solution could like in a satellite location, says Mr. Sequeira, or partnering with new developers to provide more community space. Conversely, it is now time to start looking at keeping the Centre open on weekends to accommodate the needs of members, particularly in the 55 \u2013 65 age bracket who are still working but want to keep active in \u201cbody, mind and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Charles Sequeira sat down for a chat with The Auroran last week, the talk was punctuated by a constant chatter from all corners of the lounge, by bells guiding rounds during a nearby bridge game, and a steady flow of visitors ready grabbing a cup of coffee or meeting up with a friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2015-06-11-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2QQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 11:41:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}