Thanks to a partnership between Strathmore Family and Community Support Services and the Strathmore Municipal Library, the seniors in the town are able to discover a host of new hobbies.
Assistant director of library services, Carmen Erison, explained that they partnered together after receiving the New Horizons for Seniors Program grant from the Government of Canada.
They were awarded $25,000. “This program is designed for seniors ages 55 plus. With the $25,000 we were able to purchase 15 iPads for seniors to borrow, connect with family and learn new technology.”
The iPads are not the only thing supplied by the library, they have also carefully curated video tutorials on different crafts, exercise, and more for seniors to watch from home.
“They can choose from everything from cardmaking, to dream catchers, resin coasters, paint pouring, crafting with a Cricut, watercolour tutorials, oil painting tutorials. We also have access to a Bannock-making tutorial as well as we partnered with Becky Stone, who then also created several seniors' yoga and meditations,” Erison continued.
All kits - excluding the dreamcatcher tutorial – are accompanied by a locally filmed video tutorial. Erison explained that it was important to them to use local experts on the video tutorials for seniors to put a face to people in their community.
Everyone that filmed a tutorial was compensated for their time as well, which Erison explained was crucial to the project as they always aim to support local.
The library also has included five iPads that have access to Internet data in case there are some seniors without access to Wi-Fi.
“COVID-19 has been a big struggle, I think for many people, for our mental health. I truly believe that crafting and arts and self-care and all those things are truly important in our lives,” Erison continued. “The other impact that I think this is going to have, is that with the left-over money from this grant we have purchased a wheelchair, a walker, to set of crutches, an infrared thermometer as well as a blood pressure monitor with a regular cuff.”
These items can be rented out to anyone with a library membership along with all of the New Horizons arts and craft kits.
All kits may be borrowed for two weeks and there is a waitlist for kits that are already in use.
More information can be found at the Strathmore Municipal Library’s website.
Fri, May 3, 10:00 AM
