The Elks Hall in Williams Lake is where you had to be on Sunday, Dec. 9 for a wonderful enchanted evening.
Management and staff of HUB International Barton Insurance Brokers were so pleased to once again welcome and serve 240 local residents at the 12th Annual Seniors Gathering.
The seniors look forward to this evening as it starts the Christmas season rolling. Close your eyes and imagine a child entering a hall and seeing Santa in his big chair and getting so excited to see him and visit with him. Now fast forward 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 years. You see these same excited guests only now they are our amazing seniors of our community. They are just as enthralled to come out to the Elks Hall and enjoy the ambience of this captivating evening. It is so awesome to stand back and see the joy on their faces as they greet old friends they haven’t seen for several months.
You have a feeling of delight knowing that you are a part of making this evening so enjoyable for so many seniors. Quite simply, they are thrilled to be here.
Members of the RCMP in their red serge and members of the sherriff’s department arrive early to greet the guests and start serving them coffee, tea and mulled apple cider.
Sergeant Mike Hacker is now from Alexis Creek but would not miss this event for the world. He has been coming for eight years and really enjoys it.
He walks in and gets right to work knowing exactly what is expected of him. Another welcome guest is Santa Claus. He, too, enjoys visiting with the guests and gladly gets his picture taken with them.
That’s what this night is all about. Friendliness and companionship and joy.
The staff under the direction of central area sales manager, Roger Gysel, did a great job in the kitchen, as usual. Roger says after 11 years, they have it down to a fine art.
Two hundred and forty guests start getting served at 5 p.m. sharp and all are served within 20 minutes.
The food is hot and it is good. We even had several guests comment that it seemed even better this year.
As in the past two years, the management and staff wanted all guests to walk away with a gift basket. Every year it is still overwhelming to see the generosity of the staff members who offer donations towards these baskets.
Also, lots of fundraising happens throughout the year to be able to purchase containers and fillers for all the gift baskets.
Staff volunteers start organizing in early November and have all the baskets ready to go and be delivered to the hall on the day of this special event. Everyone enjoys receiving a gift and we are proud to be able to do that for them.
Our music for the seniors was presented by Angela Sommer who did a wonderful job playing piano for two of her young students Natasha Castro and Megan Amos, who had such beautiful voices.
Mathilda McGirr played the piano as well for the guests. Everyone really enjoyed listening to all the songs that were both played and sung.
Kudos also go out to the many businesses that helped to put on this annual gathering for seniors.
Also, the seniors were asked to bring non perishable food items which were delivered to St. Vincent de Paul the next day. The organization was absolutely thrilled to receive all the donations.
Every year this event is more and more popular. Again this year there was a waiting list, so we encourage everyone who wants to attend next year to call our office after Oct. 1 next year for your tickets.