The Schreiber Senior Centre continues to build on its strengths and has been extremely successful in attracting new members despite the impact of COVID 19. As 2021 comes to a close, Linda Williamson caught up with Programme Coordinator Cathy Carlino to reflect on the past few years and what plans are in the works for the upcoming season. Cathy first took a minute to share some of the history of the senior centre and how it actually came about.

At one time in Schreiber there was a very active senior community with its own headquarters in what is now Breeze Bakery. The Chimo Club was a welcoming space where members could escape to and socialize in a warm and friendly environment. It lasted a few years but eventually closed down. In 2018 the idea of re-establishing a seniors centre in a vacant part of the current town hall was proposed by recreation programmer Evan Cole and Schreiber chief librarian Donna Mikeluk. Around that time Cathy Carlino was feeling the need to do something in the community and just get of the house once in awhile. She was finally chosen as the new programme director the revamped senior centre and has spent the last two and a half years growing the programme.

From an initial membership of just over 100, the membership has tripled in just 2 1/2 years, showing just how sociable seniors in Schreiber can be. The entrance age was decided at 50 years old and currently there are members in their late 80’s and a few in their 90’s. After an initial first year everything seemed to be going smoothly and the centre soon became a welcome home away from home for the members.

When COVID hit it was deemed that seniors might be particularly vulnerable to this new virus so clearly some changes in format were in order for the programme to continue. Cathy has never been one to back down from a challenge and one of the first “events” to be launched during the shutdowns was a virtual bingo game. It is still very popular and can be held safely by virtue of bingo cards being mailed out and numbers being sent out on social media and in some cases phone calls for those who are still a bit late in the tech game.

The first food hamper event was another huge success. Over 200 households received hampers containing close to $200 worth of food and other items. Physical activity is also very important for seniors health and slowly some of activities like chair yoga and floor curling and even the indoor walking programme are all about to be re introduced with new restrictions and guidelines in place. The Senior Centre also partners with other groups and committees to host special events including the very successful iPads for seniors programme that the library currently oversees.

As the centre falls under the management of the municipality, it has access to all other municipal services such as the recreation centre and the arena. The Senior Centre also hosts the very successful summer barbeque events in town and the money raised from that event goes towards improving the centre and serves as a great training ground to attract volunteers.