Thanks to the Mitchells’ annual sponsorship, more than 200 people enjoy a turkey dinner

Two hundred and twenty eight meals were served at the  Muskoka Seniors annual Thanksgiving lunch, held at  Faith Baptist Church earlier this month.

Although not part of the church (Muskoka Seniors rents the hall), Faith Baptist Church is one of the organization’s many sponsors.

“It’s a lovely space for us for our friendship luncheons,” said  Donna Nairn, Muskoka Seniors program co-ordinator.

This year was an especially poignant occasion for the staff, volunteers and seniors involved in the Muskoka Seniors organization.

Just two weeks earlier the founder of Muskoka Seniors, Margaret (Peggy) Graham, died in a Sault Ste. Marie hospital at the age of 75.

Graham began Muskoka Senior Support Services in the late 1980s, providing not only foot care but volunteer driving and other senior home support services. She retired from Muskoka Seniors’ Home Assistance in 2002.

“It was Peggy’s vision and her legacy to always provide a service that would help seniors live independently in their own homes. Over the years this has been accomplished with an army of dedicated volunteers,” said Nairn.

She added: “After Peggy’s retirement she became a close friend, a confidante and a source of strength for many.”

A memorial service was held  for Graham last week at Faith Baptist Church for the many friends who were not able to travel to the Sault for the funeral.

There was also another reason why this year’s Thanksgiving celebration was a memorable one. On Sept. 16, Muskoka Seniors celebrated 10 years of serving friendship luncheons to area seniors.

“The very first friendship luncheon was held at Faith Baptist with 18 people in attendance,” said Nairn. She added that now-executive director of the organization Laurene Armstrong – or Hicks as she was then known – and Karen Waters, volunteer resource manager, were both present at that first lunch.

“A few months later, in December 1997, the friendship luncheons expanded to Baysville and Dorset.”

Today, the twice-monthly lunches in Baysville will attract upwards of 50 seniors, the monthly lunches in Dorset about 36 people and the weekly lunches in Huntsville between 85 and 95, said Nairn.

The lunches are cooked by  Armstrong and an army of volunteers. Each two-course meal is followed by an activity, which can have an educational component, such as a talk about accessing home care, entertainment or a physical activity, such as armchair exercises.

Volunteer drivers will collect the seniors and bring them to the luncheons. “For this year’s Thanksgiving lunch we provided 111 transportation trips,” said Nairn. “Altogether our volunteers supplied 352 volunteer hours.”

The luncheon was attended by Huntsville mayor Claude Doughty, MP for Parry Sound Muskoka Tony Clement and MPP for the riding, Norm Miller.

Also present was Lynn Huizer, integration consultant for the North Muskoka Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), an organization created to co-ordinate, integrate and fund healthcare services at the local level and under whose umbrella Muskoka Seniors falls.

Nairn also announced that Muskoka Seniors had just received word of a $700 million   Aging at Home Strategy, from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which is intended to transform community healthcare services so that seniors can live healthy, independent lives.

“We feel we are on the leading edge, because that has been Muskoka Seniors’ mission and goal since its inception,” said Nairn.

“We are hoping that we’ll be recipients of some of that funding. Demographically our senior population is one of the highest in the province,” she said, adding that the money would be used to expand services.

“With two and a half staff members we are at capacity,” she said.

Currently Muskoka Seniors serves 350 clients and has 123 registered volunteers, plus a few other occasional volunteers who will help out when called upon.

Muskoka Seniors is funded in part by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and by donations. All seniors are able to access the various programs.

In addition to the friendship luncheons Muskoka Seniors offers a friendly visiting program (1,753 visits in 2006/7), telephone reassurances and Telechat (11,042 calls made in 2006/7), frozen   Meals-on-Wheels (1,290 meals delivered over the same period) and transportation for seniors, of which 3,878 trips were provided in the past year.

For more information on Muskoka Seniors’ programs call 789-6676. For transportation dial 789-0876.

Volunteers are always very welcome. To volunteer, please call Karen Waters at 789-0876.