I remember the day well. It was April 2 when I first noticed that it was significantly lighter at a specific time than what it usually was. My normal pattern at 5:30 a.m. was walking tentatively toward the garage and throwing sticks or an old bone to try and get the dog to run forward and trigger the sensor light, thus enabling me to avoid unknowingly stepping on one of said dog’s landmines. We have a fairly smart dog so she usually sits just out of range and watches me stumble around in the dark with my lunch kit and work binder until I manage to get the light to fire, then she happily runs up to congratulate me on another day of surviving the gauntlet. It’s interesting how many people seem to notice the increased illumination all at once — plus sitting in the hot tub at the complex after our early morning swim watching the light wash over the mountains; there are not many things finer.
Hey, did we see you at our booth at the Creston Valley Home and Garden Show the other weekend? It’s always interesting meeting people and hearing how they interact with the community complex or what it means to them. In fact, during my shift at the booth Friday afternoon, I had three different people or couples comment on how the Creston and District Community Complex as it stands today either made the decision or supplemented the reasons to settle in the valley. It’s pretty powerful stuff and it indicates a growing commitment of how much attention people are placing on a healthy lifestyle.
We also had a draw opportunity and on the form we asked a single question, “What is your favourite thing to do at the rec centre?” A quick poll of the results showed 70 per cent liked the pool or any combination of pool/skate, pool/curl, pool/workout — you get the idea. Tied at 10 per cent were the fitness centre, as well as everything around ice – skating, curling, playing hockey or watching hockey, followed by taking programs or classes at about eight per cent of entries. Purely unscientific, but it gives some idea of interests, or at least based on who we cajoled to approach our booth. Those of you that have worked trade shows know the dynamics of encouraging visitors to your booth; some are like baby deer where you don’t look directly at them or move suddenly for fear of spooking them away, sometimes you can saunter up from behind and nudge them toward the display or have moving or interesting objects that catch the attention so you lure them in closer.
Once a visitor actually finds out you aren’t going to sell them encyclopedias or insurance, you can have some pretty interesting conversations; there’s always some degree of connection, whether they are a long-term valley resident or new to the community. As a shiny object to attract visitors, Tia brought down a grip strength tester from the fitness studio, which is a device to measure how strong a “squeeze” you can do with each hand. You then compare results against a chart to see if you are fair, average, very good or excellent in the appropriate gender. As another purely unscientific study (I’m just full of it today) I looked at the results on our little tally sheet. First thing I noticed and also from working the booth, is that we needed a category higher than 60-69 years as we had people in their 70s and even 80s wanting to try the tester. The second thing I noticed is that these people, male and female in the 60-80 range are flippin’ tough, with many scoring excellent as compared to younger age ranges scoring as very good or average. I’m thinking some of those folks pitched a few bales or milked a cow or two in their day as part of their fitness program.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.