Seniors community serves up a Thanksgiving Dinner and looks into providing equipment that will allow seniors to get the kind of exercise they need.

News 100 yellowBy Connie Price

October 6th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

What a wonderful day……..just what the Burlington Seniors Community Inc. had hoped for!

The Volunteer teams of St. Christopher’s Open Doors cooks and servers and BSCI’s Board and Volunteers worked together seamlessly: all deserve credit for the efficiency with which the meal was prepared, including the 225 lbs. of turkey cooked and served.

BCSI #1

The Burlington Seniors Community organization organized a Thanksgiving day dinner – cooked more than 200 lbs of turkey

The attendance, even though we initially thought we would limit it to 225 – 270 were fed. We didn’t turn anyone away.

The decorations and tables were inviting and attractive with a Fall theme, which afforded us the opportunity to give each table centerpiece as a Birthday Gift to whomever at the table had a Birthday nearest to the Event.

BCSI # 2

The Thanksgiving Day Dinner took up two rooms at St.Christopher’s – 270 were fed and entertained. Turns out the Seniors can run programs of their own without having to deal with city hall.

While the Guests ate, Aldershot High School Student, Alex Bella performed magic and card tricks at the tables to baffle the seniors.

The Entertainment was outstanding, fun and all seniors themselves. The performers included the New Horizons 20 piece Band, comic musical singer Bette Pender & Sinatra style crooner Fred Burnell, both from the Burlington Footnotes, the Weekly Strum Ukulele Trio and last but certainly not least Burlington’s Singing Veteran, Bill Read, who led the audience singing through a medley of old tunes with his Ukulele, including a patriotic song he had written and performed many times in the past 18 years singing for early morning commuters at the Appleby Go Station.

He concluded his performance along with the afternoon, by asking everyone to stand and sing God Save the Queen and O Canada with him.

Very emotional for many. What gifted and talented seniors we have in Burlington!

As the Guests left, they were given a Take Home Bag with items, information and literature of importance to seniors.

BCSI equipment

Some of the types of Senior Exercise Equipment available to promote balance & increase flexibility, while encouraging social and mental health through socialization.

Since BSCI’s mandate is “To be a leader for information, education, recreation and social interaction for our diverse and growing community of seniors” , we also circulated a Survey with information and questions asking the seniors’ opinions on two projects we are currently promoting and want their input and comments about. We received 152 completed Surveys, regarding our new Seniors Without Walls Program and the building of Outside Senior Exercise/Social Spaces.

These are just two of the projects that BSCI are becoming involved in to further our aim to fill some of the current gaps, especially for socially and physically isolated seniors.

The Thanksgiving dinner was a day of rolling up our sleeves and doing the work to accomplish it.

 

 

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1 comment to Seniors community serves up a Thanksgiving Dinner and looks into providing equipment that will allow seniors to get the kind of exercise they need.

  • Penny

    We want to thank Pearl & Pine Retirement Living for providing the soft serve ice cream machine which we added to the cake for our dessert. Martha’s Landing and Christopher Terrace provided home made cookies that the seniors were able to take home. This event was a successful partnership between our group The Burlington Seniors Community (BSCI), St. Christopher’s Church, Pearl & Pine and Chartwell Retirement Living, and all the entertainers who provided their time.

    It was a wonderful afternoon, and it gave us the opportunity to inform the community about our organization and our mandate to help the Seniors of Burlington.

    If anyone wants more information about the Seniors Without Walls program please call at 905-631-2524 to register. Our programs happen on Tuesday mornings at 10am, and Thursday afternoon at 2PM. Oct 12th the Burlington Fire Department will be speaking on Fire Prevention. ALL OUR PROGRAMS TAKE PLACE BY TELEPHONE IN YOUR OWN HOME.