Senior Power returning to Strathmore prior to Senior’s Week
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wheatland Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) are hosting their biannual Senior Power event, May 30, which will kick off Senior’s Week this year.
Hosted every two years, alternating with FCSS’s women’s conference, the Senior Power event aims to showcase resources available and current information relevant to local seniors which may be of interest.
“Senior Power is hosted in Strathmore by various partner agencies, usually such as Bridging the Gap, Alberta Health Services, Addictions and Mental Health, Strathmore and Wheatland FCSS, and it is a conference that has been held for many years designed for our 55+ population,” said Crystal Gaudet, CAO for Wheatland FCSS. “The Senior Power event allows the seniors to get together and network. We provide them with speakers who come in and talk to them and provide them information about topics directly related to their lifestyle.”
Topics which will be discussed at this year’s conference include natural remedies, advocacy, and healthy maturing from an Indigenous perspective.
The Hope Community Covenant Church will also be utilized as a host space for local vendors providing information on senior-specific topics and services, or selling goods directly related to seniors.
Though an exact date was not provided, Gaudet said the senior’s conference has been a bi-annual event in Strathmore since the early 1990s.
“Our planning committee gets together and we reach out to local community partners so that we can try to stay as local as possible. Our seniors have told us they want to see people who know their situations, who understand where they live because it is so rural out here,” said Gaudet. “Our keynote speaker, Julie Matthews, this year actually reached out to me looking to provide information to local teens and seniors regarding fraud prevention and she just emailed me at the right time; we were looking for some speakers for this conference.”
Gaudet added seniors are currently a vulnerable demographic when it comes to online scams, thus it is important to increase awareness about how to identify fraud and prevent it.
This year, there is no particular theme associated with the event, rather it is simply a conglomeration of information to be made available to local seniors.
The one-day event will be operating from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. with tickets being available online, at the Wheatland FCSS office, or at the Vault Cultural Collective.
FCSS is also currently still seeking both sponsors and vendors to be a part of the event. Information about how to participate is available through the in-person office as well as online through the FCSS website.
The Senior Power event is not technically part of or associated with efforts related to Senior’s Week, however being similarly relevant, the event was decidedly scheduled at a similar time.