{"id":14829,"date":"2016-07-27T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14829"},"modified":"2016-07-27T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:32:00","slug":"if-you-wait-to-join-the-seniors-centre-youre-missing-out-says-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/if-you-wait-to-join-the-seniors-centre-youre-missing-out-says-new-president\/","title":{"rendered":"If you wait to join the Seniors\u2019 Centre, you\u2019re missing out says new President"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

One of the first things Carol Hedenberg hears when new members walk through the door is, \u201cI\u2019m finally old enough to be here \u2013 I\u2019m 73!\u201d<\/p>\n

For the new president of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association, it is not something she\u2019s never heard before \u2013 but it is an attitude they often encounter at the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre. <\/p>\n

Ms. Hedenberg, 69, succeeded Jim Abram as the president of the Seniors\u2019 Centre last month. A five year member of the Board, she was on the younger end of the senior spectrum when she first walked through their doors at the age of 61 looking for something to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a need,\u201d she says, of what propelled her to the John West Way building. \u201cI needed to be out with people, I wanted to be useful and I wanted an outlet. This is the first place I came to and it was the best thing I ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Hedenberg, who has lived in Aurora for the past 22 years, describes herself as a social person by nature. Before she retired, she was a tour director on a bus travelling across \u2013 and guiding tourists \u2013 the length and breadth of North America, but when retirement came she found herself in a slump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was staying home far too much,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWhen you retire, you\u2019re supposed to do things differently and that is not necessarily the case. I didn\u2019t know anybody at the Seniors\u2019 Centre but thought I would give it a try. I had excellent first impressions. The people were so friendly and welcomed me in. I was able to learn new things like bid euchre and it gave me a new social outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning bid euchre, as it happened, was essentially a gateway to becoming more involved with the Centre. One of the instructors asked if Carol would be willing to serve on a committee and the ball just started rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I am one of these people that never says no,\u201d she says. \u201cIt seems like somewhere along the line it became written on my forehead, \u2018Carol can help you do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But, she adds, that is not a burden. It is strictly a good thing and it helps fuel her forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fulfils what I am looking for. I am wanted, I am needed, I am appreciated, but I get to go home at night!\u201d<\/p>\n

Elected at the ASA\u2019s most recent Annual General Meeting, she is the second President of the Association since Charles Sequeira\u2019s 10-year term, and the second since the ASA found its new home on John West Way. When Carol looks ahead to the challenges facing the Centre over the next few years, she says there is always a need for a bigger new building but concedes that\u2019s not in the cards. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d she says. \u201cOur needs now are small to what they were years ago when we just got into the building. Now, it is a matter of making sure everybody realises what their alternatives are and what there is to do, and making sure there is something for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ms. Hedenberg spoke to The Auroran following her appointment, there was a heated poker tournament going on in one room, Mah Jong in another, and people reminiscing about their latest successes on the Pickleball courts.<\/p>\n

A hugely popular sport in the senior community, this combination of tennis and badminton \u201cis good exercise, everyone loves it and it is competitive,\u201d she said, before an athlete at the Centre weighed in: \u201cIt\u2019s the best thing ever invented. You just want to get better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think seniors are looking to have something to push themselves for,\u201d says Carol, noting one of their more recent programs, adult colouring, is more her speed. \u201cPeople think, \u2018well, this is a seniors\u2019 centre, but when you come through the door everyone is here for the same reason. They want to be out with people, be social and have something to do. They don\u2019t want to sit at home and be that vegging-type person. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust because your age says you\u2019re a senior doesn\u2019t mean you are. I think the mental stigma with it is not necessarily a good thing. If that is their attitude, they aren\u2019t going to come until they are darn good and ready. You never know until you try it. Come and at least look and give it a chance. There are more things to do here than sit and play cards.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first things Carol Hedenberg hears when new members walk through the door is, \u201cI\u2019m finally old enough to be here \u2013 I\u2019m 73!\u201d<\/p>\n

For the new president of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association, it is not something she\u2019s never heard before \u2013 but it is an attitude they often encounter at the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14829","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\/2016\/07\/2016-07-28-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Rb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 16:19:22","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\/14829","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=14829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}