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MEMORY LANE: Group helps seniors help seniors

For June Melnychuk, life changed forever seven years ago when her husband Terry passed away suddenly. Fifty-five years together – raising children, building careers, travel – became memories.
June Melnychuk

For June Melnychuk, life changed forever seven years ago when her husband Terry passed away suddenly.

Fifty-five years together – raising children, building careers, travel – became memories.

What did not change was June’s desire to give back to the country that had given her family so much. It was how she and Terry, her childhood sweetheart, were raised.

One day, she saw a sign at the corner of Marine Drive and 21st Street that said: Lunch and Games at Noon.

“It was 11:45 and I decided I would go,” recalls June. “When I walked in the door the first person I saw said, ‘Welcome.’ It filled my heart.”

That sign belonged to the North Shore Volunteers for Seniors centre where June now plays bridge and Scrabble, and takes a weekly yoga class.

“It was the answer for me,” June says. “I woke up one morning determined to find something that day that would fill my life.”

June sets up the games tables and puts them away. She also keeps the centre bright with flowers. She is both a participant and a volunteer. This is important to note because North Shore

Volunteers for Seniors is operated by seniors for seniors.

“Volunteering and participating here helped me. Now I appreciate something that I learned as a child: that it is better to give than to receive. I feel the joy that comes with giving,” says June.

• • •

Terry’s and June’s families (the Nemirskys and Miskews, and Dworanowskis and Melnychuks) emigrated from Galicia in western Ukraine to Canada, determined to make a better life for future generations.

The Nemirsky family, including June’s great-grandmother Maria Magdalena, born in 1835, and grandfather Theodore, were among the first to make the journey. They crossed the Atlantic aboard the Christiania, the Ukrainian Mayflower, arriving to claim their new home (160 acres of virgin land northeast of Edmonton) on May 22, 1896.

With only two years of formal education, Theodore traced the family’s genealogy and chronicled their story, noting that once the decision to emigrate was made, “Already we felt Canadian although we hadn’t seen it yet.”   

June adds to her grandfather’s note: “For our families, the first to arrive in Canada, education was the prime factor in our lives, along with pride in our heritage. We learned how blessed we are to be in this country and to be grateful for what it offered us.”

North Shore Volunteers for Seniors represents what being Canadian means to June: a mix of people from all corners of the world sharing their gifts and experiences with others.

“We’re a cosmopolitan group. I play bridge with a British nurse who was born in India, a physician from Czechoslovakia, and a woman from Goa,” she says.

Back in 1961, a group of people set out to make a difference in the lives of a group of other people.

Friends, family members and fellow North Shore residents decided they would bring the outside world inside to improve the quality of life of friends, family and fellow residents living in care facilities and hospitals. They called themselves North Shore Volunteers for Residents in Care Facilities and every member was a volunteer.

Recreation, stimulation, connection: the volunteers had created a model that was ahead of its time. And, over time, as community needs and attitudes towards its older members evolved, so too did the group. The centre’s original vision continues from its home base in West Vancouver and in visits to seniors in residential care across the North Shore. North Shore Volunteers for Seniors is supported by two part-time staffers, a dedicated board of directors, and community partners.

“June has the eye to see what needs to be done. That is a gift,” says Christine Holmquist, the society’s executive director. “Everyone here has something to offer and to receive.”

Join North Shore Volunteers for Seniors (membership is a modest $15) and enjoy lunch, games and more at 275 21st St., West Vancouver. Information: nsvs.ca or 604-922-1575.

Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or e-mail her at lander1@shaw.ca.