Things are ticking along at the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors (TAPS) with all programs going. Well, we did have to make some changes as our dear TAPS big bus, which has served us so well since 2010 but ran out of steam recently. Many decisions and rescheduling are underway to continue serving our seniors. Hats off to the flexible and creative minds at Valley Community Ser-vices and TAPS staff and volunteers as they meet this challenge. The fundraising efforts of the Krafty Kronys contributed to the purchase of our buses and one is even named after Patt Robicheau, whose leadership inspired their efforts that continue on today.
This month we completed a previously mentioned 16-week program called Moving Along Together for people with memory changes and their caregivers. This was funded by a Columbia Basin Trust social grant and was very well received by participants with strong recommendations as a much-needed program.
It’s a mouthful: Multigenerational and Intergenerational Connections is our yearlong program bringing seniors and youth together. By meeting and sharing histories and memories and working together in documenting them, it’s proving to be a popular and engaging program. As well as visual arts, they are working on a play and recorded histories, and I hear there’s a dance in the works. Thanks to Mike Poznikoff for displaying one of the projects by the seniors and Grizzly Bear Out of School Care youth at Creston Card and Stationery. Students from Wildflower and TAPS seniors will be performing at Crest View Village and Swan Valley Lodge. Funding for this program came through the New Horizons for Seniors Program — Employment and Social Development Canada.
I dropped in on the Tuesday Strummers Group last week, as well as the Thursday band and choir, and found myself seduced by the nostalgic sweetness of the music and voices singing the old familiar tunes. Thanks again to Joanna Wilson volunteering her musical skills on a regular basis.
OK, we’ve had our fun over the summer plotting, planning and staging photo shoots, we’ve pored over the photos reminiscing and imagining the titles, and very soon you will be able to get one (or two or…). Our 2016 TAPS fundraising calendar will soon be available around town: at Kingfisher Used Books, Creston Card and Stationery and Black Bear Books, and of course through us at TAPS.
Thanks to the Blossom Valley Singers for inviting us to provide refreshments at their Christmas concert — see you at intermission Dec. 11 and 13.
We’re thinking of Ann Hepher and her family and join them in remembering Peter Hepher, who passed away at 94 on Nov. 6. As the 2014 citizen of the year, he was honoured then for the significant contributions he made to our community. He wrote columns for The Voice of Experience in the Advance and was a board member on the Creston-Kootenay Foundation which benefits so many of us in the Creston Valley. Thanks, Peter. Your wisdom lives on through your life’s work.
Maureen Cameron is the community liaison development co-ordinator for the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors. For more information on TAPS, run by Valley Community Services, call 250-428-5585.