With another Senior’s Week successfully behind her, Seniors’ Week Committee Chairperson Holly Wood has time to reflect on a job well done.
“I think it went quite well,” she said of the third annual Seniors’ Week.
From the opening lunch at Camp Chestermere on June 4 to the Langdon Walk/Run June 10, those 55 and up were treated to a wide range of activities over the course of the week.
“It’s a pretty diverse agenda for the week,” said Wood.
She said that any of the meals offered during the week are always popular.
Particularly successful was the Taste of Chestermere dinner held at the Chestermere Regional Recreation Centre June 9.
“That’s always a popular one,” she said.
Other old favourites included pickle ball and the crib tournament whose popularity surprised organizers.
“I would say the crib tournament on Tuesday night was very, very well attended,” said Wood.
In planning this year’s event, Wood worked to balance new activities with the old favourites.
“We had the sports excellence in Chestermere which was done by Bill Peddlesden, that was new this year and it went over very well,” she said.
Another new event that turned out to be very successful was the talk on wills, power of attorney and goals of care that was given June 6.
Wood said that people really appreciated having the opportunity to ask questions of the guest speaker, Lawyer Erin Leslie.
“It was very interesting for a lot of the seniors that didn’t understand a lot of the process for doing that,” said Wood.
While organizers are calling the week a success, there was a dip in attendance compared with previous years.
Organizers chose to focus the promotion of Seniors’ Week primarily to the Whitecappers club which Wood said is what led to a slight decrease in attendance from other seniors in the community.
“It was down this year…the general senior residents in Chestermere that was down,” she said.
She was happy how the week went though, especially since organizers had to work through, as she described it, “a few snags,” when planning Seniors’ Week.
A couple of members of the committee ended up stepping down near the beginning of preparations.
“It was kind of difficult to replace them at the last minute but because this was our third year, the rest of us had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done,” said Wood.
Wood also had a very personal loss this year that affected the planning.
Her husband, Brian Wood, passed away in February.
“He was a vital component to seniors’ week,” she said, “he did a lot of my work while I was at work.”
“Things like doing up the brochure and…phoning people and getting things organized,” said Wood.
While a few things may have fallen through the cracks, organizer persevered and in Wood’s opinion, everything, “went quite well.”
While Seniors Week has just finished, Wood has already given some consideration to next year’s event.
She is hoping that the city will become even more active in planning Seniors’ Week.
“I’m hoping they are going to take it over a bit because I think they’ve got the expertise to carry it on,” she said.
Regardless of what chances come to the event, Wood is still planning to be involved next year.
“I’m definitely going to do that,” she said.
