By all accounts, the May 8 community café to discuss the best way to make 100 Mile House an age-friendly community for our seniors was a smashing success.
The gathering attracted about 50 people from all generational groups, and there were some wonderful exchanges of information and a sharing of solutions to issues everyone encounters.
This discussion has been a long time coming, and acknowledging and working with our seniors has been the missing piece in the socioeconomic fabric of the South Cariboo.
We have every generation pretty much covered with programs and opportunities in our communities, but it appears the fifty-plus group has been passed by without much contact.
We have to thank District of 100 Mile House Councillor Ralph Fossum who learned about the Age-Friendly Community Planning Grants at last year's Union of British Columbia Municipalities conference and immediately realized this would be a good fit for 100 Mile and the surrounding area.
He recognized the need in our community – and not just our seniors community – because more and more people are retiring to the South Cariboo, and 100 Mile House is their service centre.
District council was already looking at making 100 Mile House more accessible, and quickly formed a partnership with the South Cariboo Community Planning Council to apply for a planning grant. They wanted to gather input from seniors about what it would take to make their lifestyles better.
This information was collected through focus group sessions where seniors gathered, surveys that were left at, and collected from, high traffic areas, and the recent community café.
So where do we go from here?
As a community, we have to break down our stereotypical thoughts about seniors.
We are not the seniors our parents and grandparents were.
We are active seniors who range in age from 50-plus to 80-plus – we may be hobbled a bit but we're definitely not rocking chair bound.
We have worked and played hard, but we have, for the most part, taken care of ourselves.
Most of us are fun-loving and we want to be included in general community activities and "hang with the younger folks" if they will include us.
The next thing we have to do as seniors is learn to communicate amongst ourselves and the other generations.
We need to find seniors who will lead seniors in the next stages of our lives.