Submitted by: Swan River & District Community Resource Council Inc.
Service to Seniors
Hello to all, 42 people attended the three days of Coffee and a Chat this month. It was great to see you all again and meet the new people who came.
Birch River and Swan River welcomed Kamden Keith as our exercise instructor. Kamden has a program where she meets with seniors young and old in their own apartment buildings, 5 sites in Swan River. She brought her chair exercises for us. It is amazing how you can get a full body workout just sitting in a chair. Thanks, Kamden, for keeping us on our toes.
In Benito we welcomed Deb Wilson Community Liaison Healthy Living Facilitator/Healthy Together Now Lead (North PMH) Mental Health, Winter can be a challenge and Dr. Monica Cole DC, chair exercises and stretching hints. We had an interactive conversation about what keeps us mentally well.
Friends, Good Friends( the ones who tell you the truth), socializing, doing new things, having a good night’s sleep. Some participants have group chats where everyone just says “Good Morning”. What a lovely way to start your day saying good morning to good friends. Winter has challenges, but there are no bugs! No worries over yard work, just to shovel snow. You can always dress warm for the cold weather. We now have a chance to slow down, read more, visit more and just recharge ourselves. When you look at the world with optimism, it is a beautiful place, even in our Manitoba Winter.
Dr. Monica Cole brought our attention to posture, stretching (what to do with a “Charlie Horse”) and how to do movements sitting on a chair to keep ourselves fit while we wait for spring. She discussed, as with Deb, how to relax and embrace winters slower pace, keeping in mind that you need to keep fit with indoor activities so we can stay strong. Exercise benefits all areas of our health, mind and body. It was great having Monica back with us. Such a wealth of information!
The second part of our Coffee and a Chat sessions in Birch River, we were introduced to three youngsters from the Chief Charles Audy Memorial School at Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation who did a hoop dance for us. Their instructor Brenda Gaudry gave us some history about hoop dancing and how it is based on animals. The dance the children did was an eagle hoop dance. If that wasn’t interesting enough! Brenda and the children showed us how to do a basic hoop dance with three hoops. I feel it was a challenge for the children to teach us older folk. But boy, we have fun. Great shout out to Brenda and her team.
The second part of our Coffee and a Chat session in Swan River, we were entertained by Mrs. Betcher’s grade one class. The motto of the day was to brighten our winter with song. They sang, told jokes and even wished us a happy new year with blow whistles with streamers. If that wasn’t enough, the children brought riddle books and each child sat with a senior person and read their riddle books. That was cute and such fun too! The day ended with a snack and lively conversations; children do really brighten up a senior center.