New seniors centre taking shape in Port Dover centre

Aim is to unite longtime residents, newcomers

Port Dover seniors will have a new place to play once the first seniors centre in the lakeside community opens later this month.

The project is the brainchild of former board of trade president Adam Veri, who was approached in 2018 about the need for a seniors centre in a town seeing an influx of retirees.

A public meeting and survey saw more than 300 seniors express interest.

So Veri got to work, securing municipal approval and a $59,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

He also organized a transition team of local seniors — a mix of community elders and “junior seniors” in their 50s and 60s — to chart the direction of the not-for-profit venture.

The centre was poised to open in April 2020 in the former Scout hut, a municipally owned building on the outskirts of town.

“And then March 13, the world shut down,” Veri said.

Two years and one lucky break later, the centre will instead open where seniors wanted it all along — inside Port Dover’s downtown community centre, which last summer came under the management of the local Lions Club.

“There are so many people moving in from the city, and because of COVID, people have been at home and realizing, ‘Wow, we’ve got time on our hands,’ ” said Lions president Sue Finnie.

Retirees want to be active and meet their new neighbours, she added, as seen in the Lions signing up 18 new members in the past year — a number Finnie said is “unheard of.”

Veri hopes to welcome longtime residents and newcomers alike to the seniors centre, connecting those who live by the beach with those in the sprawling subdivision on the town’s eastern border.

“If we encourage people to join the community, that’s only making Dover stronger,” Veri said.

Membership is $50 for the year, which includes planned programming such as yoga and fitness classes, tablet and smartphone training, and improv comedy classes geared to seniors.

Certain days will be designated for drop-in visits, when members can grab a coffee and chat, play cards and board games, and watch TV.

“Why not watch ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ here with 10 of your buddies? Come down here, we’ve got a big living room,” Veri said.

Other programs in the works include floral arrangement and beginner art classes, as well as live music. Anyone 50 and older can join. Membership is not restricted to Port Dover’s urban boundaries. Veri said seniors from surrounding communities — such as nearby Haldimand County — are welcome, with the possibility of bringing in seasonal members such as summer cottagers.

Helped by a further $100,000 in provincial funding secured last year, Veri could see the new centre holding cooking classes, canning workshops, elder abuse prevention seminars and roundtable discussion about how to improve accessibility for seniors and make Norfolk County an age-friendly community.

“It’s not going to be a cookie-cutter seniors centre,” Finnie said. “It’ll be what’s needed.”

Learn more at PortDoverSeniors.ca or the board of trade office.