Fourteen more sleeps till Santa comes! Or if you don’t believe in Santa, 14 more sleeps till some rotund perpetrator with abundant facial hair and a red suits breaks into your home and leaves merchandise in your living room — assuming you have been good, that is. For some reason, or for me anyway, this December has arrived faster and seemingly busier than previous ones. We have had some really jam-packed weekends this past month and room bookings are filling up for this time next year. I just had a peek and every Saturday throughout November and until Dec. 24 is already booked in 2016.
On a different note and as you know me pretty well by now, I always trumpet the benefits of our little Utopian valley whenever I get the chance — the geography, the people, the weather, the local food and the list goes on. It’s not always going to be that way; we will grow in size and become busier and probably more detached. It is a natural urban progression but for the time being, I will continue to enjoy our small-town atmosphere despite the glaring absence of big box stores, drive-thru banks and 24-hour liquor stores.
I get it. I know we are not Mayberry RFD as there are always some background matters happening; we’re human, not perfect and that’s part of life. I do know we live in a place where the bus driver knows a lot people by name and in the past has stopped and asked a senior, “Hey, George, you need a ride home?” We live in a place where people do well-being calls or check to see why you haven’t been showing up for this or that. We live in a place where I’m surprised at the number of people that still don’t lock their doors. I take pride in living in a community when I read a letter in the paper from a traveller that had a breakdown praising residents that came to their aid or businesses that opened on a Sunday to get them going again. We live in a place where a couple days ago we walked into a bookstore for a coffee and the person behind the counter handed me a fresh cinnamon bun, perhaps subconsciously knowing that at that particular point, a cinnamon bun was what we needed to take the edge off the past few days.
Our opinion is further solidified because of the people in our community when recently we experienced a sad event in our lives; we experienced the caring and compassion of the staff at both Crest View Village and the Creston Valley Hospital. I know it isn’t just those two places — you just have to look at what the service clubs and other organizations in our community do, as well as all the other fundraisers and Christmas hampers; again, the list goes on. We live in a caring community. When you see care aides or nurses or even doctors tearing up as you struggle to process through an event, that speaks volumes. In the future, when I read those ads or Warm Fuzzies where people or families are extending heartfelt thanks to any of our care facility, hospital staff or doctors, they will be more than just words.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.