With fall officially here (a.k.a. the first dose of the white stuff), we are busy doing the same things you are around your house: drain and roll up hoses, blow out the sprinkler system, get the grass cut one last time, try and pick up the junk laying around before the permanent blanket of snow removes it from our sight and make sure all the mechanical systems are ready for winter. We also review our procedures for snow clearing and the increased cleaning necessary for the inside of the building because we haven’t reached the stage, nor do I ever see us there, of everyone nicely taking off their boots at the front door and neatly placing them in a row.
All the fall activities are firing up around town, as well — for instance, last weekend we loaded up the truck at home and made stops at the recycling depot, the bottle depot and the Hazardous Waste Roundup being held at the Creston and District Community Complex parking lot. (An upcoming column will let you know how that turned out.) Talk about busy around town: we also saw a snowmobile swap meet happening in the same parking lot, regular minor hockey at the rink, the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market going full swing, a coat sale at Gleaners and were aware of a whole raft of music or entertainment happening at various venues around town over the weekend. Once again, for those that say there is nothing to do, well...
We always like to hear how we are doing at the community complex — if the experience or facility is good, we want to continue or improve upon that; if there was a problem or complaint, we will try and act upon it. Of course, as in life, everything can’t always be perfect — someone wants music in the pool, someone else doesn’t, the room is too hot for one, it’s just right or too cool for another. That’s just the price of doing business with a large number of individuals, and it is what keeps things interesting and sometimes challenging. One thing is for certain, though; we will never tire of hearing people say good things about your community complex and I will always endeavour to share those thoughts with you because it is important, and it reinforces why we have it in the first place.
Case in point: The other week I was chatting with a young woman who is from San Francisco and was visiting her grandfather for the weekend. Looking for something to do along with her three-year-old son and having shopped downtown, checked out the coat sale and not having any hazardous waste to drop off, decided to check out our pool. She couldn’t say enough about it and was amazed we had such a facility available to us here. She ended up coming swimming all the days she was here and even brought her grandfather up to get his golden age pass, which allows anyone 85 years and older to use the facility at no cost. With the grandfather at 96 years and the great-grandson at three years, it really accented the span of ages that the facility is available to. While I know we have had virtually newborns using the facility (not by themselves, of course) I believe this fellow is our oldest member currently.
It’s interesting — when we create programs and enter them into the computer, we typically use a default setting of 0-99 years of age. Who would have ever guessed that we are now crowding those boundaries?
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.