Staff from Crosina Realty Ltd. and Tanya Rankin Ltd. are helping seniors in need this year by donating over $1,000 worth of goods to the Seniors’ Activity Centre.
Every year, realtors across Canada participate in the REALTORS Care® program, donating their time or funds to a cause of their choice. This is the second year Crosina Realty donated to the Seniors’ Activity Centre on what they call Seniors Donation Day.
“This is our way of giving back to the community,” said Karen Gertzen, managing broker of Crosina Realty and the local representative for the BC Northern Real Estate Board.
Gertzen has experience volunteering for seniors and she, along with other people in her circle, has come to realize just how underfunded seniors are and she decided it was time to help.
“I found it’s the people who need the most ask for less,” Gertzen said.
Eva Navrot is a senior support worker at the Seniors’ Activity Centre, a nonprofit membership-based organization where seniors can go for affordable entertainment and support. She said the realtors’ donations are a big help.
“It allows us to keep providing affordable meals in our lunch program,” Navrot said. The centre serves lunch five days a week to its members for just $4.50, and members in need can also access free food and supplies in a stigma-free and discreet space. Last week, the Seniors’ Activity Centre hit the 10,000 mark for meals served this year in their lunch program.
Kylie Green, manager of the Seniors’s Activity Centre, said it’s becoming increasingly difficult to provide meals at an affordable price as the cost of food rises. She also said the number of seniors accessing the free lunch program has risen in recent years, though she can’t say for sure whether this is related to growing need.
Leading up to Seniors Donation Day realtors in Williams Lake were invited to donate foods such as canned goods, jams, nutritional drinks and cookies along with hygiene products such as denture cleaner, toilet paper, tissues and pads for bladder leaks.
The donations were placed all around a Christmas tree in Crosina's front office, a true demonstration of holiday giving.
