Home
2015 - 10 - 09 CJDC TV coverage of Dawson Creek Better at Home 5th Anniversary Open House
2015 - 10 - 09 Alaska Highway Daily News coverage of Dawson Creek Better at Home 5th Anniversary Open House
2015 - 07 - 15 CJDC TV coverage of Seniors' Bus Tour
2015 - 04 - 19 CBC coverage of Cook Book launch
2013 - 09 - 04 Northeast News coverage of Seniors' Sewell Game Farm Tour
May 21 2014
BC is the first province in Canada to appoint a Seniors' Advocate.
Senior's Advocate, Isobel MacKenzie, will be in Dawson Creek
June 16th
between 2 and 3:30pm
at the Encana Events Centre - Lower Lobby.
She is looking for input from seniors on what's working and on what improvements they'd like to see.
Make your voice heard. Be sure to attend!
May 6 2014
A Big 'Thank You' goes out to Encana for their continued support of the Dawson Creek Better at Home Seniors Bus Tours!
Pictured above left to right: Brian Lieverse-Community Relations Advisor/Encana, Elsie Graham-Better at Home senior, Arleene Thorpe-Volunteer Coordinator, and Kathy Mould-Better at Home volunteer
April 2 2014
Another successful Seniors' Bus Tour took participants to the Dawson Creek Art Gallery, to KPAC for lunch, and then to 'Exploring Art', where everyone explored creating collages. Some great looking pictures were created and a lot of fun was had by all!
Big thanks to BC Transit, the City of Dawson Creek, and Encana for their continued support of these tours.
(Click on the thumbnails below to view a full size version of these pictures!)
We are very excited to be hosting these excellent workshops in Dawson Creek!
The 'Train the Trainer' component will allow participants to not only take away valuable information, but be able to share that information with employees, co-workers, and volunteers.
Seats are filling up so please contact us if you would like to register!
March 2014
Busy times! over 200 seniors have received services from Dawson Creek 'Better at Home' volunteers and contractors - totalling well over 8,000 hours.
Look for us at the Trade Show in April - where we'll be celebrating National Volunteer Week!
January 2014
Happy New Year!
Our volunteers are doing their very best to keep up to the demand for snow removal. Many hands make light work - and we would certainly appreciate a few more hands! :)
Anyone interested in contributing a little time and energy to help local seniors dig out from all this snow is most welcome to call or drop in for more information on being a Better at Home Volunteer!
Holiday Office Hours:
The Dawson Creek Better at Home office will be closed from:
Dec 20th - 29th and Jan 1st - 6th
See you in the New Year!
Dec 17, 2013
4 Step up and Ride buses carried 65 seniors on a 40 minute
tour of the Christmas lights in Dawson Creek. Participants then stopped for hot
chocolate and goodies at Dawson Creek Medical Supplies. Thanks to Step up and
Ride for their support, the van drivers for donating their services, and Tim
Horton’s and M&M Meats for the refreshments.
Thank you to all the generous supporters who supplied treats
and draw prizes to make the outing such fun: City of Dawson Creek, Simple
Pleasures, Old Creek Store, Wurth Canada, and The Dollar Store.
December 9 2013
Thank you to Arc Resources Ltd. for an early Christmas present for Better at Home and for seniors in our community! Pictured above, Arleene Thorpe - Better at Home Volunteer Co-ordinator receives a cheque for $2000 from Christine MacLean - Field Office Co-ordinator for ARC Resources Ltd.
Thank You and Merry Christmas!
October 29th 2013
Ticket to Ride Rides Again...
This time with stops at the airport, the Water Treatment Facility, the Reclaimed Water Facility, and Faking Sanity Cafe. A tour jam packed with interesting stops and lots of information and fun... And on one of the NEW buses too!
October 15th, 2013
Better at Home Meet n Greet Open House
This was a very well attended event, with over 50 visitors coming through during the two hour open house. We were entertained by the music of both Bill Studley and Karen McGowan. We were visited by Mayor Dale Bumstead and MLA Mike Bernier, who both gave talks and answered questions from our seniors.
We were able to introduce Jody, our regional field coordinator, who was visiting for the day.
Prizes were won (see photos below) and goodies enjoyed and a lot of visiting took place.
We celebrated three years of helping seniors remain independent in their homes, calculating that over those three years our volunteers and contractors have contributed 8000 hours of direct services to senior - everything from friendly visits to shovelling snow!
Here's hoping we'll be able to celebrate many more years of the same!
We had a visitor from Vancouver for this event! Jody Olsson - our regional field coordinator had a chance to meet some of our seniors, volunteers, and supporters at the 'Meet n Greet'!
left to right: Arleene Thorpe:Volunteer Coordinator, Jody Olsson, Jeannie Lindgren: South Peace Seniors' Access, and Linda Studley: Program Coordinator.
Velma won a box full of items for fun and relaxation
Ella won some wonderful artisan soap - donated by Victoria Manson
Helen won a lovely basket from Simple Pleasures
Everyone enjoyed treats, music, and talks from local officials, as well as from our regional field coordinator, Jody. We all celebrated a very successful first three years!
Sept 17 2013
A Big Thank You to Encana for their generous donation towards Dawson Creek Better at Home's Seniors' Tours. Today, Brian Lieverse, Community Relations Advisor for Encana, presented Better at Home with a cheque for $2,000 to help defray costs involved in the recent Sewell Game Farm tour and the future Christmas Light Up tour.
Thank You Encana for being a part of the Better at Home Team!
Left to Right:
Brian Lieverse, Community Relations Advisor-Encana; Arleene Thorpe, Volunteer Coordinator-Better at Home; Stephan Pavlis, Department Manager-SPCRS
Sept 3 201
Without our dedicated volunteers, 'Dawson Creek Better at Home' could not offer a fraction of the many services we do. They are the wheels on this machine and we are very, very appreciative of the great contribution they make towards helping our local seniors remain independent in their homes.
This summer has been a very busy one for our lawn mowing volunteers and last winter was a real scramble to keep up to the snow. Usually the volunteers who mow are the same ones who shovel and over the last year they have provided hundreds of hours of mowing and shovelling!
Unfortunately we're losing a couple of great volunteers this fall due to personal commitments and moving and since there's no knowing what Old Man Winter will bring this year, we'd really like to find a few new members for the 'Better at Home' Team. If you can help out, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us!
July 16 2013 - Tour to Bear Mtn. Wind Park
There wasn't an empty seat in the bus as Better at Home seniors took a tour up Bear Mountain to see the wind turbines! The sun was shining and there was plenty to see. The turbines look so much bigger when you're right beside them! Thank you to Joanne Dueck for giving an informative talk and for answering questions, and to Don Pettit and Peace Energy for donating copies of the book "Power Shift" as draw prizes for the participants.
For more information about wind energy or the wind park - see Peace Energy's website
A rare sight! Maintenance being done on one of the turbines meant the tour participants got to see a blade being removed from the turbine!
Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to our wonderful, young at heart seniors for a great day. Better at Home Volunteer Coordinator,Arleene Thorpe, (centre with sunglasses on top of head!) does a great job of organizing all the terrific tours that Dawson Creek Better at Home stages. Thank you Arleene.
And a big thank you to the generous sponsors of this tour: Moch Electric, DC Bearing & Hydrolic, DC Campbell Recycling, NorKam, Clinic Pharmacy, Peace Energy Co-operative, and Peace PhotoGraphics.
July 3 2013
Good Things - Cooking for One (or two)
Dawson Creek Better at Home is announcing its latest fundraiser - and you can be a part!
We want to publish a very special cook book; one filled with easy, healthy recipes that feed one to two people.
We're calling it "Good Things" - because good things come in small packages.
If you would like to contribute a tried and true recipe we'd love to hear from you! We'd also love to hear about your special tips and hints from the kitchen. And if you have photos of your wonderful recipe even better!
The profits from the sale of the cookbook will go back into the Better at Home Program - helping seniors receive the services they need to remain independent in their homes.
So dig out that recipe box and let's see what we can cook up!
Call us at 250-782-2341 or email us
We'll also have some advertising spots available in the cookbook.
June 24 2013
The first "Ticket to Ride" bus tour was a great success! See the CJDC TV news story here (It's about 4 minutes into the video).
These tours are supported by the City of Dawson Creek and BC Transit - who make the bus and the services of the driver available to Better at Home three times a year, so we can help seniors discover new independence by using the city bus.
Another excursion is planned for this Friday (July 5th) when Step up and Ride vehicles will be used to take seniors up to the Bear Mountain Wind Park to see and learn more about the wind turbines.
Helping seniors remain independent and connected to their community is Better at Home's objective. Helping people discover the world of opportunity available to them through the local transit system is a great way to increase independence.
April 23, 2013
April has been a busy month! After officially transitioning from CASI to Better at Home, we took several steps to make sure everyone knew about it!
April 8th - a Delegation visited the Dawson Creek City Council and explained the change, inviting everyone to the....
April 15th Grand Opening - which was a huge success! 65 plus people visited during the two hour open house, enjoying the live entertainment, the delicious refreshments, and of course - getting all the important information about the new program!
Then on April 19th to 21st we manned the Better at Home booth at the Dawson Creek Kiwanis Trade Show. We were very pleased with the positive input we received from visitors to the booth. Many seniors picked up brochures and received information on how Better at Home can help. And many people were also interested in becoming volunteers.
We also referred people to the Provincial Better at Home website because they had senior parents living in other cities in BC and were very excited to hear that the program was expanding into other communities.
Now it's time to settle down to business as usual - which is helping seniors to live independently in their own homes and to stay connected to the community. And that's a really good business to be in.
New friends, old friends, everyone had fun.
Above: Better at Home Dawson Creek Coordinators - Arleene Thorpe and Linda Studley show off new branded tote bag.
Lots of visiting, eating, celebrating at the Grand Opening!
Cutting the cake (left to right): Arleene Thorpe - Volunteer Coordinator, Blair Lekstrom - MLA for Peace River South, Linda Studley - Program Coordinator, and Mike Bernier - Mayor of Dawson Creek.
...and cake. Everyone had cake!
Above: Reps from Better at Home Dawson Creek host agencies. Left to right: Stephan Pavlis and Brigitta Ratschker (SPCRS) and Jeannie Lindgren and Muriel Stanley (SPSASS)
Left: Brigitta manning the booth at the 2013 Dawson Creek Kiwanis Trade Show. We received great support for the program and many people were interested in volunteering.
April 2, 2013
Today CASI, (Community Action for Seniors' Independence), officially becomes "Better at Home". We are very pleased that the work done as CASI will continue in this new program and proud to have contributed to its development with our work as the CASI Pilot Project.
We're still in the same place, still offering the same services, and still pursuing the same objective -
Helping seniors live independently in their own homes and remain connected to their community.
