Gibsons Seniors Society is trying to raise its profile in the community and bring in new members, especially those who, in the words of outgoing president Ron Sayer, say, “I’m not old enough yet.”
Sayer said the society has been in transition over the past few years, and they’re building around a strong executive committee and trying to reach out more to the wider community.
Sayer convinced the Town to declare Sept. 16 Gibsons Seniors’ Day to coincide with the society’s open house. He said the event was a success, with around two-dozen new members joining the ranks of the 320 or so already involved.
“If I can, I’d like to get up to 600 in the next three years,” Sayer said. “And that’s not unreasonable looking at the population growth in Gibsons.”
He also said he’d like to see a lot of those new members come from the 50 to 65-year-old age bracket. “People aren’t volunteering anymore, they aren’t joining clubs or societies like the Legion, us, you name it,” Sayer said. “Fifty to 65-year-olds aren’t coming in and volunteering to the extent that my generation has, so something’s missing.”
Sayer said he’s been looking to the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre as a model and wants to bring some “vibrancy” to Harmony Hall, the Town of Gibsons-owned building that’s been home to the society going back to the early 1970s.
“One of my goals is to try to get arts and music [groups] involved at the hall… I’m trying to get them back into the society and using the hall again,” he said. They’re also putting more effort into attracting other groups, like the garden club and the Gibsons Yacht Club, to rent Harmony Hall for their meetings.
Sayer said with a fully equipped kitchen and members trained under FoodSafe, the hall could easily evolve. “At the moment it’s just isolated groups coming at different times. I want us to become a hub of social activity. That’s one of the things seniors really need.”
One long-term challenge, however, is the hall itself. Harmony Hall’s location on Harmony Lane in Lower Gibsons isn’t highly visible and the building is a bit too small for popular activities like pickleball or badminton.
“One of the problems we have is one of geography, and accessibility to Lower Gibsons… If we had a hall in Upper Gibsons closer to the community centre, closer to Christenson Village, it might be better,” Sayer said. “I believe in the years to come they’ll have to plan ahead a get a new building.”
As well as looking to the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre as a model, Sayer said the Gibsons Seniors Society is building alliances and connections with them by doing things like inviting their members for events, including the Oct. 2 general meeting.
The society is bringing in guest speaker Wanda Morris, the vice president of advocacy for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons. The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. and interested non-members are welcome, but seating is limited. There’s more information at www.gibsonsseniors.com
