Seniors step in to a better life

Librada, or Lydia as she is known in Canada, sits smiling inside southeast Vancouver’s Collingwood Neighbourhood House on a rainy Monday morning.

Unfortunately, the weekly CASI Walking Club has been cancelled on this day due to poor weather, but this is not enough to slow down the indomitable 75-year-old Filipino-Canadian.

“I go out four times a day. I go home, eat, and walk again. Even if it is raining, I don’t like to stay home. Just go out, and enjoy.” The retired ESL teacher never leaves her house without her orange shopping bag filled with information sheets on CASI services. She tirelessly walks and rides the SkyTrain around her neighbourhood, distributing these sheets to any senior she sees.

The Community Action for Senior’s Independence (CASI), pilot program is a partnership between United Way of the Lower Mainland and the provincial government that allows seniors to remain independent and live at home longer.

Local agencies provide CASI services in five communities throughout BC. Older people have access to such essential services as transportation, light housework and grocery shopping. The walking club at Collingwood Neighbourhood House is a CASI service.

As Lydia’s kind face breaks into another luminescent smile, it is easy to see why she has been credited with the growth of the walking club. When the club started in November 2010, Lydia and her husband were among the original seven members. Now, thanks in part to Lydia’s enthusiastic recruitment practices, 40 seniors join the walk on any given Monday. “It is so beautiful,” Lydia says, “to see so many seniors walking together.”

Every Monday morning, Lydia and the other walking club members meet at 10:30 for an hour-long walk. They usually ramble around the east Vancouver neighbourhood, giving participants a chance to explore the area’s many parks.

As Lydia’s fellow walker and “buddy buddy” Ann puts it, “If it wasn’t for these walks, I wouldn’t know about these parks in my neighbourhood.” They prefer to walk outside, however they have also traveled downtown together on the SkyTrain to Sinclair Centre and the Bay, sporting CASI nametags. “The people like it,” explains Lydia emphatically.

After the walk, the very multicultural group of seniors gathers back at Collingwood Neighbourhood House. They chat over free coffee. Despite language barriers and cultural differences, the seniors bond over their shared exercise. “All of them are my friends,” says Lydia proudly. She greatly appreciates the companionship and conversation with people of her own age.

Lydia credits her youthful exuberance to keeping physically active and learning new things, both of which are achieved at the walking club. She is learning Chinese from the other walkers and, in turn, she teaches them Tagalog, the language spoken in Manila.

Lydia knows what can happen to seniors who do not keep active. “Because they are not going out,” several of her friends suffering. “So me, I go out just to get fresh air. If you stay home you are only counting the four posts. I do not like to count the posts. I go out and learn.”

Lydia says her life has improved. “I am happy,” she says. “I am becoming strong. I have a lot of friends, more friends because now I have Chinese, European and real Canadian. Not only Filipino…It is so nice to meet people from different cultures.”

Lydia moved to southeast Vancouver from the Philippines 15 years ago after raising six children, most of who are now spread around the world. Because of this, she is well traveled, but now she stays put to spread the word about CASI to her fellow seniors. Lydia is fortunate to live with her husband and son, but emphasizes that the program helps seniors live more independently. “The project of CASI is good,” she says.

Programs like CASI and the walking club are helping Lower Mainland seniors maintain their independence, health, and remain connected and engaged in their communities. In 10 years, seniors will outnumber children in most Lower Mainland communities. Your donation to United Way of the Lower Mainland will help ensure that the high costs of institutional care are postponed. It will also help encourage other seniors to follow in Lydia’s ever-moving footsteps by staying active, social and independent with a zest for life.