2019 Alberta 55 plus Admin Alberta 55 plus.ca 9/1/2019 Contents President’s Message…….2 Canada Games……….3 Zone 1……….5 Zone 2……….6 Zone 3……….11 Zone 4……….12 Zone 5……….19 Zone 6……….23 Zone 7……….28 Zone 8……….31 1 President’s Message Hello to everyone across this great province of Alberta. It's been four months since the AGM was held in Red Deer and I finally found some time to send out a Presidents Message. It is my intent to send these messages out on a quarterly basis going forward. We have had a very busy 2019 so far and there are many, many items I could put in this message, unfortunately some will just have to wait until the next message. I know, I’m excited too! As you all know we recently held both the winter games in Cold Lake and the summer games in Medicine Hat. In speaking with the organizing committees from both cities, all parties felt that both games were a great success. Together, there were over 1600 athletes and participants from the eight zones who partook in the 28 events that were offered. Be sure to thank your Zone Presidents and Activity Directors for the tremendous amount of work they put into making these games happen. These numbers are very good, but one of my main focuses (as well as the entire Provincial Board) is to increase those numbers to over 2000 participants. Of course, we will require help at every level of our association. This means that our combined efforts to maintain and increase our membership numbers are critically important. We will need your assistance in getting this done. The results from both games can be found on our website and our PC, Barbara Johnston, is ever busy updating those pages. We will be scrutinizing and correlating all the information from the games and will initiate a dialogue about what sports we are offering, which ones we shouldn't be, and what sports are out there that we need to incorporate. It will no doubt be an interesting conversation. We will be polling the membership for your ideas. (Some of you have already done so) Since our time away from Alberta Sport Connection we, along with the assistance of Cold Lake and Medicine Hat, have now managed to host two Provincial games and admittedly have some things to improve upon. With each Provincial Games we offer, our plan is to strive to provide the best sporting and participatory environment we can. We are new to the administration side of things, but we are learning, and we are getting better. I have heard from a myriad of members, Zone Presidents, Zone Activity Directors, and the general membership that we need to offer more local and grass root events. More local tournaments, scrambles, fun-days, demo-days, how to events...especially in the off-game years. We will continue to explore and dialogue on how best to accommodate these requests. Please continue to talk to the people in your respective zones about how to best accommodate these types of activities and events. Great news on the sponsorship front. We have just recently signed on with a new sponsor called Trip Merchant, which is a membership based exclusive travel company. They offer a special travel website for members only which includes discounted ticket prices, tour packages, solo travelling options, and other member benefits. It is a password protected website that is for our members and is provided for you for simply being a paid up member of Alberta55plus. Stay tuned for information that will be found on our website on how to join (sign-up) into this sponsored website. 2 At the writing of this letter, we have reached out to over 40 communities across Alberta by way of letters and phone calls, to start the process of selecting the next host community for the 2021 winter and summer games. There have been no decisions made to this point but we are hoping to bring news in the coming months. Please stay tuned. I wanted to offer my sincere thanks and congratulations to all participants who represented their respective zones in both Cold Lake and Medicine Hat. My hats off to you if you managed to earn a spot representing Alberta at the Canada55Plus Games being held in Kamloops, BC, August 2020. Good luck to everyone and let’s do Alberta proud. I’m sure the experience will be an enjoyable one. As I mentioned in my opening statement, there are many more items and projects that your Executive Board are currently working on, but that news will have to wait until the next message is crafted and sent out. Watch for it around the end of October or early November. In the meantime, please continue to "beat the drum" and ensure that friends and family are aware that Alberta55plus is alive and well. We are (you are) doing great things for seniors in our communities across Alberta and we will continue to strive to provide opportunities and events for those seniors to stay active and involved. Dave Finn President, Alberta55plus CANADA GAMES KAMLOOPS, BC. AUGUST 25 – 28TH 2020 CONGRATULATIONS to everyone qualifying for Canada Games from the Winter Games in Cold Lake and the Summer Games in Medicine Hat. You should all have received an e mail stating what medal winners qualified in what events/sports. I will be attending the Canada Games AGM in August and there could be one or two changes, additions or deletions in a couple of events, and if that is the case I will have another e mail out so everyone gets the news of changes, if, in fact there are any. Because of the more than usual members wanting to compete in Canada Games in Lawn Bowling there will need to be a Provincial playoff. There will be more to come on this as soon as arrangements can be made. Hopefully the fall weather will be good, and this could be in early October. All those of you that have sent me your name will, of course get this information as soon as it becomes available. 3 With regard to Badminton and Carpet Bowling. For those of you that had registered for these two events, because of no fault of your own they were cancelled, you will have the first chance to go to Canada Games. If you had registered for Cold Lake and your registration was returned and you would like to go, please send me an e mail and let me know. I am not expecting the registration forms until December or January, so please be patient. If you require any information before that, please contact me. Some of you will be hearing from Dave Finn as he is going to be helping with the registration forms this time as he prepares to take on this responsibility for the next Canada Games in 2022 which will be someplace in Central Canada. Another very important point to remember, everyone going to Canada Games MUST take out their 2020 membership in Alberta 55 plus. I have had a few inquiries about Alberta shirts, and yes there will be shirts available. If any of you either in singles or small teams or the larger hockey and slo pitch teams know at this point that you will not be going to go to Kamloops, I would appreciate you letting me know as soon as you can. Thank you. Again, congratulations to all of you. I am hoping Alberta will be sending at least 500 or more to Kamloops. This will be as close as Canada Games gets to Alberta for another 3 games which would be in the west again somewhere, in 2026. Let’s all get out and make this happen. Have a safe summer and I look forward to contacting you with exciting happenings coming up in Kamloops. Pat Covington, Alberta Director, Canada Games Alberta 55 plus would like to express our gratitude to Alberta Sport Connection for assistance received for our Winter and Summer Games. 4 Zone 1 Sunny South CONTRACT BRIDGE TOURNAMENT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019 NORD-BRIDGE SENIOR CENTRE 1904 13TH AVENUE NORTH Multi-Purpose Hall (East Entrance) LETHBRIDGE, AB Register by October 10, 2019 BRIDGE TOURNAMENT PARKSIDE SENIOR CENTRE – TABER THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019 Registration: 9:00 am Play starts at 9:30 am 5 ZONE 2 Big Country Zone 2 report on Medicine Hat games According to Zone 2 participants, the Medicine Hat games were a huge success. The volunteers were so friendly and accommodating, the food was amazing, and the venues great! The opening ceremonies with the band piping us in with our flag bearers leading us, was very special. Our zone had one of its best showings ever with just under one hundred medals won. Track & Field topped the list with forty-four medals and three athletes set new records. Swimming won sixteen medals, cycling thirteen, and golf eleven. We also won medals in floor curling, slo-pitch, cribbage, floor shuffleboard, horseshoes and military whist. Three people also brought home six medals in Painting and Photography. The comments from our BCSSS participants were that the games were most enjoyable, the efficiency of the buffet lines was amazing, and the coupons for the venue lunches worked very well. There were a few hiccups but overall they were a very successful games and a good time had by all. Norma Dawson Our zone 2 banner carriers – Pat Bartholow and Bob Wahlund The Medicine Hat summer games were a huge success beginning with the opening ceremonies on Thursday evening and finishing with the luncheon on Sunday.