Rossland's 80 year old pool aims for "age-friendly" grant
By Andrew Bennett
The city has applied for a 2013 “Age-friendly Community Planning and Project Grant” to renovate the swimming pool to make it more accessible to seniors—some of whom were here in 1932 for the grand opening of BC’s oldest pool.
“Due to the age of the facility and the lack of age friendly infrastructure, many of the seniors in our community are not able to continue to enjoy swimming as a form of recreation,” wrote CO Tracey Butler and Recreation Programmer Robin Hethey, the co-authors of the grant application. “The pool has multiple stairwells, slippery change room floors, and very few handrails.”
Proposed renovations would included non-slip flooring and handrails, with the goal of increasing the participation of Rossland’s seniors in swimming pool programs. The authors hope for a broad range of benefits to seniors from respect and social inclusion to health and fitness.
In addition to the city, community partners include the Rossland Senior’s Association and the Interior Health Authority.
At council’s regular meeting on Nov. 12, Coun. Jill Spearn said, “I’m so happy to see this. It’s a great grant and written well.”
Rossland has successfully secured this age-friendly grant in the past. In 2010, Rossland REAL Food and the city received $14,000 towards building the community garden and to develop a program to get seniors involved with the garden, promoting intergenerational learning about growing, cooking, processing food, and healthy lifestyles.
The part time local community coordinator hired to run the intergenerational learning program organized workshops where seniors provided instruction on gardening, food preservation, and seed saving. Programs also included fitness in the garden classes, healthy cooking classes, and activities that connected seniors and children from the local schools at the garden.
