St. Patrick’s Day is often a major celebration on the Askennonia Senior Centre’s calendar with a live concert, dancing, a luncheon and salutes to the land of Éire.
But while the pandemic outright cancelled last year’s event, this time around the centre is offering a virtual edition, complete with performances by local musicians Nicole and Louis Lefaive and Dylan Lock.
“We’d had 300 people come out to it in the past,” Askennonia executive director Judy Contin said.
Today’s St. Paddy’s offering serves to illustrate just one of the ways Askennonia has adapted to continue serving the hundreds of local residents it counts as members with a wide range of virtual offerings, ranging from cooking classes featuring André Sanche to a gardening club led by master gardener Diane Greenfield.
Contin is also hopeful that once the weather warms up, they’ll be able to again offer some in-person programming at the Little Lake Park picnic shelter and other outdoor spaces.
“As long as it's outdoors, and we've got the amenities that we need, we'd be okay,” Contin said. “Just ensuring the washroom facilities are there can be kind of tricky.”
Last summer and fall, Askennonia hosted a wide range of programming at the picnic pavillon. From yoga, zumba and woodcarving to line dancing, tai chi and ‘hustle muscle,’ the pavillon became sort of a second home to the centre that had to close its North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre base in mid-March as the pandemic hit.
As for the actual centre reopening, Contin said that decision would be made by the centre’s board of directors.
“It depends on so many things,” she said. “It depends on how this vaccination process really works and whether they can ramp it up when we get more vaccines. We want to make sure that before we open that everybody is safe and that the rec. centre’s available.”
For now, Askennonia, which has close to 1,300 members, continues concentrating on its virtual fare and successfully ensured members without a laptop or computer were able to keep participating in programs through a tablet donation program.
“We’ve to a lot of programs and lots of things going on,” said Contin, who estimated there are close to 20 online programs now in full swing.
They also offer travelogues presented by world traveler Michael Brooke, who takes members to various countries, including next week's presentation on the Galapagos Islands.
“We also do some social chatting on Zoom,” Contin said, noting programs such as watercolour and woodcarving have also made the virtual switch for the time being.
And with some feeling desperate and depressed, given the reported third wave now gaining speed, Contin said Askennonia is happy to be offering group therapy sessions next month over Zoom with psychologist Chantal Coward.
And without in-person events, there's another area that will eventually need to be addressed.
“We’re hanging in there, we’re feeling the pinch,” Contin said, noting fundraising is now virtually non-existent with popular fundraising events now on hold.
“I’ve been able to get grants so that’s a good thing. But we used to fund-raise $150,000 to $200,000 a year, just to balance our budget.”
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