In existence since the 1990s, Bowen Island’s seniors group, Seniors Keeping Young (S.K.Y) offers outings, talks, and exercises to anyone more than 55 years old. More importantly, says former S.K.Y president Renate Williams, it is a place seniors can go once a week to have a coffee and socialize - an important excuse to get out of the house.
Williams stepped down as president this past June, but with no-one having offered to fill the job in her place, she continues to do it.
“I’m over 80 now, and I’m tired,” says Williams. “It is a lot of work to put a program together every week. Our volunteers are working hard and cannot take on more.”
While part of the reason for a lack of involvement in the running of S.K.Y. can be chalked up to seniors having other things to do - including long vacations in the winter months - another reason is the movement of seniors away from Bowen.
Williams says that in 2013, the membership of S.K.Y was 40 people, but since the beginning of 2014, eleven members have left the island.
“Mostly they’ve moved to the city, and a number of them have moved into the Kiwanis Seniors Home in West Vancouver,” says Williams. “Five of those seniors were actively engaged in the running of S.K.Y.”
Williams says that she hopes, with an election coming up, people will start to take the challenges of Bowen’s seniors more seriously.
“Everybody talks about providing housing for seniors,” says Williams, “But how come the only people doing it, are the ones who built Bowen Court thirty years ago?”
She says that Bowen Court is made up of 18 units, four of those units are occupied by people who are more than 80 years-old, and there are twelve people on the waiting list to move in to this seniors housing co-operative.
“There is a lot of talk about the lack of healthcare as the big problem for seniors, and this is definitely true,” she says. “But I see so many more obstacles than that. Even the seniors that are lucky enough to have their kids live on island, well, their families are so stretched, with their own kids and with both parents working, that they don’t have time to drive their parents somewhere, or really be there for them.”
S.K.Y has recently started working with Caring Circle to provide seniors with a monthly lunch in order to entice more seniors to get out and interact.
“I feel confident that working with Caring Circle we can really do more and be in touch with more people,” says Williams. “And the lunch is a great start. Food is the best equalizer.”
