News From
the Executive Director (April – May 2006)
After
several months of winter rain, spring is finally here, and with the spring
comes some great news! I am pleased to
announce that the Government of British Columbia has generously gifted the 411
Seniors Centre Society with the building in which we currently reside. The
Though
the winter seemed bleak and overcast, we had some great events. Our Multicultural Day celebration
last month draw more than 200 people from a wide-array of backgrounds to
our centre to celebrate the diversity of our community’s seniors. We had a great line of musical events,
wonderful (ethnic) food and great speeches (they truly were) from the three
levels of government and some of our own people.
Speaking
of celebrating diversity, I have more good news to report. We have received two project grants from New
Horizons to conduct the Multicultural Seniors Advocacy Project, and the Elders
Diversity Exchange Project. We also
received a project grant to conduct the Elders Mosiac
Project from the Ministry of Attorney General.
It
seems like I have a lot of success stories to report this newsletter. Our income tax clinic has been in full-swing
since the beginning of March, and will continue until the end of April. By the look of things so far, we just might
surpass the 1,600 income tax returns completed last year. Please see the back cover of this newsletter
for more information about the clinic. You’re not too late to avail yourself of
this great service provided by our wonderful volunteers.
It
seems like just yesterday that we were making arrangements for our Annual
General Meeting (AGM) and Board Member elections. This year’s AGM is coming up on June 21
(Summer Solstice) and the Nominations Committee is in the process of receiving
nominations for the 2006/2007 Board of Directors. If you are interested in serving on the Board
please contact Carol Lloyd or myself at 604-684-8171. I’d also like to wish Jim McDowell, a current
board member who has moved on to pursue other interests, all the best.
Now
for a quick update on staffing. Our
Special Projects Coordinator Jasmyne Rockwell has
moved on to pursue a career as a social worker.
Our coop student Celine Huang and social work
student Randall Defant will return to their programs
of study in April. Finally, we welcome Candy Man-Lan Lam as our new Programs
and Services Assistant. Good luck and
thanks to all of you!
We’d
like to remind you that Seniors’ Week comes up in the
first week in June, and our Open House is the same day as the AGM. We hope to publicly celebrate our permanent
home sometime during seniors week, so stay tuned for
updates.
Finally,
there had been an opportunity for the 411 Seniors Centre to use some space at
the Woodward’s Building, and we thank the City of
~Margaret Coates