CELEBRATE AGING
Sevenoaks Alliance Church celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998. I presented an idea to the Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart that we work together in hosting a special event as a gift to the seniors in Abbotsford, our way of celebrating the church's 50th anniversary. We called it Celebrate Aging. A
lot of preparation and work went into making this event a reality. I must say that it would not have been
the successful and exciting day that it was without the many hours spent
by Cindy Matus, one of the church secretaries, in phoning and contacting the various organizations, scheduling the various events, insuring that the gym and classrooms needed were all in place, plus all the paper work , including the printing. Much work was also done by the committee members and other volunteers, composed of
folks from both of our senior's groups.
Celebrate Aging
was held on Wednesday, May 6th, 1998, beginning at 10:30am lasting for four hours, ending at 2:30pm. We had
thirty-nine different booths set up in the gym. These booths and
displays consisted of the various issues, health, business matters, etc.
that seniors were facing or may face in their declining years. There were
organizations and businesses with a display dealing with diabetes, alzheimers, blood pressure, care homes, funerals, wills, home care,
medical supplies, etc. We even had an ambulance on location that the folks were able to
explore. We had a booth with Christian literature and information about Sevenoaks Alliance
Church. One person prayed to receive Christ that day.
In
addition to the displays in the gym, we had twelve different forty-five
minute presentations in some of the classrooms. Three sessions were held in each of the four hours. I can't recall all of the display booths or sessions that we had. Some of the sessions that come to mind had to do with preparing a will, a fire-fighter who talked about senior safety, a police constable whose topic was security, a class for seniors regarding physical exercise, an accountant, a nurse and information about seniors and re-marriage. There were several more. I don't have a record of all that we had, but suffice it to say this will give you some idea as to that day of celebration.
Coffee/tea and muffins were available throughout the day, without charge. Each hour we had a different musical presentation in the breezeway, with pianists, a string trio, etc. We also had door prizes given about every 20 or 30 minutes. These gifts were donated by various Abbotsford businesses which included such items as a potted plant, gift cards to restaurants, etc. I should make it clear that this event was totally free to any and all, our seniors' gift to the community as we celebrated fifty years as a church.
It was one exciting day. Some 700 people attended during that day. The health providers and businesses that were involved were so pleased with our event that some of them said they would like to participate the next time we did it. Well, there wasn't a next time. Maybe there should have been, but I leave that to some future pastor to seniors. Our event was twenty years ago and there is a new group of seniors that might welcome such an event.
Unfortunately, our people were all so involved that I don't know whether anyone took any pictures, at least I didn't. So for this post, you'll have to settle for a scanned copy of the add which I placed in the Sevenoaks Citizen.
If you wonder what the Sevenoaks Citizen was, it was a quarterly paper that I prepared for the seniors of Sevenoaks. Initially it was an eight page paper, which I increased later to twelve pages. Six hundred copies were printed each quarter, with a few of them being mailed to others. The Sevenoaks Citizen consisted of senior trivia, some of it humorous, plus items of interest and helps for seniors. Each quarter I published an interview with one of our seniors. Some of those that I had the privilege of interviewing or writing a story about included Evangelist Leo Janz, the founder and preacher of the Janz Team Ministries, Lowell Young, long time pastor of First Alliance Church in Calgary and in his last years of preaching was the preaching pastor at Sevenoaks Alliance Church. Lowell spent his last few years in a nursing home in the White Rock/Delta area. I often visited him in those years. I interviewed other seniors, some told of their experiences of growing up in Russia and their coming to Canada. A couple of other interviews were with seniors at Sevenoaks who had gone on short term mission trips. In most issues, I wrote the lead article which appeared on page one.
The paper was well received and I enjoyed editing this paper, which I began in the spring of 1996 and published until my retirement, the spring of 2000. The byline of the Sevenoaks Citizen was "For Citizens With Seniority."
Coffee/tea and muffins were available throughout the day, without charge. Each hour we had a different musical presentation in the breezeway, with pianists, a string trio, etc. We also had door prizes given about every 20 or 30 minutes. These gifts were donated by various Abbotsford businesses which included such items as a potted plant, gift cards to restaurants, etc. I should make it clear that this event was totally free to any and all, our seniors' gift to the community as we celebrated fifty years as a church.
It was one exciting day. Some 700 people attended during that day. The health providers and businesses that were involved were so pleased with our event that some of them said they would like to participate the next time we did it. Well, there wasn't a next time. Maybe there should have been, but I leave that to some future pastor to seniors. Our event was twenty years ago and there is a new group of seniors that might welcome such an event.
Unfortunately, our people were all so involved that I don't know whether anyone took any pictures, at least I didn't. So for this post, you'll have to settle for a scanned copy of the add which I placed in the Sevenoaks Citizen.
If you wonder what the Sevenoaks Citizen was, it was a quarterly paper that I prepared for the seniors of Sevenoaks. Initially it was an eight page paper, which I increased later to twelve pages. Six hundred copies were printed each quarter, with a few of them being mailed to others. The Sevenoaks Citizen consisted of senior trivia, some of it humorous, plus items of interest and helps for seniors. Each quarter I published an interview with one of our seniors. Some of those that I had the privilege of interviewing or writing a story about included Evangelist Leo Janz, the founder and preacher of the Janz Team Ministries, Lowell Young, long time pastor of First Alliance Church in Calgary and in his last years of preaching was the preaching pastor at Sevenoaks Alliance Church. Lowell spent his last few years in a nursing home in the White Rock/Delta area. I often visited him in those years. I interviewed other seniors, some told of their experiences of growing up in Russia and their coming to Canada. A couple of other interviews were with seniors at Sevenoaks who had gone on short term mission trips. In most issues, I wrote the lead article which appeared on page one.
The paper was well received and I enjoyed editing this paper, which I began in the spring of 1996 and published until my retirement, the spring of 2000. The byline of the Sevenoaks Citizen was "For Citizens With Seniority."
Sample cover page of the Sevenoaks Citizen, spring 1997
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