Hello fellow members,
By now you will have heard or read about our Provincial Summer Games recently held in the Peace Region. Peace River, Grimshaw and the surrounding municipalities did an amazing job of hosting and we owe them a debt of gratitude. The games were a big success withover 800 participants in attendance.
Now that both Provincial Games are finished, we are preparing to move onto the Canada55 Games being held in Kamloops, BC. We should be sending somewhere around 300-400 athletes there to represent Alberta and Alberta55 plus. This should be a very exciting sojourn in to the interior of BC for the summer games for participants from Alberta and across Canada.
I wanted to personally thank all of you who demonstrated a high level of patience with me and the registration process for Canada55. We were under a ridiculous time line to get things done and although there were glitches to be sure, we managed to get almost everyone registered on time.
It is a feat unto itself when you only have 10 days to register and deal with 400 athletes, so thanks to Pat Covington and Caroline Anker for living and surviving this nightmare. We are still dealing with several issues regarding late entrants, late registration and some Covid/Vaccination concerns. None of them will have an “easy” resolution.
Changing gears, it was recently decided by the Alberta55 plus Board to award the 2023 Provincial Summer Games to the city of Brooks and the surrounding areas. This is exciting news for us as it allows us to now start planning all the events and qualifiers for next August. The games will take place from Thursday, August 17th to Sunday, August 20th, 2023. Stay tuned for more details and updates as they come in. I’m sure that Zone 1 and the Brooks Newell Region will do an amazing job of hosting the Games.
Hopefully you will have read the letters of support we have received from several MLAs regarding funding and other concerns for seniors across Alberta. I have encouraged your Zone presidents to share these letters with as many of you as possible. In turn, you can share them with whomever you see fit. This is great news that our concerns are being raised in the parliamentary halls, and to Minister Orr directly. We hope to see some progress in this regard.
After reading these letters, and if you are so inclined, I encourage all of you to start our own letter writing campaign to our current sitting MLAs to let them know your story, your concerns, your thoughts on the current state of affairs when it comes to seniors and the need for support for sports, recreation, participation and social engagement. We should be ” forgotten no more”.
A few closing comments…
Your Board will continue to work hard for you to ensure that you always have events and games that you can participate in. We are also always looking at new events, games, skill activities for you to try. Watch for Bean Bag Toss coming soon.
I know it seems like next May is a ways off but it really isn’t and there will be elections taking place at that meeting including the President and several other Executive positions. Knowing this in advance, you can start to network and converse with people you know who would be willing to step up and fill one of those vacancies. Who knows, maybe even you will run.
Lastly, please continue to beat the drum. I do it every I chance I get. I’m proud of who we are, where we are, and what we are accomplishing. It wouldn’t be possible without all of you and your boots on the ground all across Alberta.
We need to be vocal about who we are and frankly, what we deserve to have.
People and politicians are starting to take notice, let’s keep that momentum going.
Yours in sport and recreation…
Dave Finn
President, Alberta55 plus
PS: I will be in Kamloops in August at the Canada55 games and hope to see some of you there. Safe travels to all those making the trip.
