Popular radio personality Dr. Art Hister will be taking part in the city’s Seniors’ Festival.
The city’s annual Seniors’ Festival is a chance for adults aged 50-plus to try a variety of art, cultural and recreational programs, hear presentations from professionals with expertise in advocacy, health management and issues of interest to older adults and their caregivers. The free event is taking place on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Anvil Centre, 777 Columbia St.
Hister has been a correspondent for CBC News World and BBC Radio 5. He’s currently a daily health analyst on the morning news on Global TVin B.C., a weekly contributor to Global TV’s Thursday noon news and Saturday weekend news, as well as the host and writer of A Medical Minute with Dr. Art Hister.
During the Seniors’ Festival, seniors can try a variety of free recreational and cultural drop-in activities including Bhangra East Indian dance, watercolour painting, line dancing, indoor lawn bowling, X-Box gaming and belly dancing. Free workshops will be offered on advance care planning (10 to 11 a.m.); seniors and intimacy (noon to 1 p.m.); and engaging isolated seniors (noon to 1 p.m.).
Service Canada will be offering two workshops to help seniors learn what services they may be eligible for. The session from 2 to 2:30 p.m. is for services for those under 65, while the session from 2:30 to 3 p.m. focuses on those who are over 65.
Seniors Day will also feature a panel discussion about creating Dementia Friendly Cities. The panel will include: Jim Mann, board member of the Alzheimer Society of Canada, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; Rebecca Morris, advocacy analyst with the Alzheimer Society of B.C; and John Stark, the city’s senior social planner.
Monument lights the night
If you’re planning to drop by the Wait for Me Daddy war memorial and check it out at night, you better go before it’s lights out.
The monument, unveiled in Hyack Square on Oct. 4, has a feature that allows it to be lit up in the evening – but the lights go off at 11 p.m. About 2,000 people packed the area around Hyack Square for the unveiling of the sculpture.
As part of the unveiling, the city had Wait for Me Daddy T-shirts printed. Canada Post has released a Wait for Me Daddy stamp, and the Royal Canadian Mint has a new Wait for Me Daddy toonie.
To watch a video of the Wait for Me Daddy unveiling or for details about where you can buy the T-shirts, stamps and coins, visit the city’s website at www.newwestcity.ca
Ambassadors wanted
The Hyack Festival Association is accepting application for its 2015 New Westminster Hyack Ambassador scholarship program.
The program is open to youth between 16 and 19 years of age. It will accept up to eight qualified applicants for a year of leadership, business and etiquette training, along with the opportunity and responsibility of representing New Westminster and Hyack Festival Association here at home, in the Lower Mainland and throughout B.C. and the Pacific Northwest.
“I owe a huge deal of my self-improvement and overall enjoyment of the past year to this amazing opportunity,”Jenni Slinn,2014 Hyack ambassador, said in a press release.
Scholarships are awarded to each of the ambassadors, with additional funds of up to $1,000 available to top award winners.
Many former Miss New Westminsters and ambassadors recently reunited during the Come Back To Hyack alumni weekend.
The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Oct. 15 – but late applicants are welcome. More details and application packages are still available at the Hyack Festival Association office at 204 Sixth Street or by calling 604-522-6894.
Send Around Town ideas to Theresa, [email protected], or find her on Twitter, @TheresaMcManus.
