The Award Winning Voice of Seniors throughout the Thompson/Nicola/Shuswap Districts • Over 35,000 distributed monthly
Senior Connector
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Volume 22, Number 10, February 2014
Family Day Feb. 10, 2014
The Seniors’ Own Newspaper
To inform, serve and entertain those 45 and better • Locally owned and operated • Visit us on the web at www.seniorconnector.com
A new chapter unfolds
Mike & Lori’s Musings Mike Keetch
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Lori and I bought the Senior Connector and started a wonderful adventure. Our first edition was May 2003 and Lori, who mainly ran the paper at the time, has been hard at it ever since. During that time, because of the Senior Connector, I have been able to try some different things that I always wanted to be a part of. One of those was working for our local Member of Parliament. I was lucky enough to work for a time for both Betty Hinton and our current MP Cathy McLeod. Although
I enjoyed my time on the fringe of politics, I kept being drawn back to our “little paper”. Over the years we have come to know a great many wonderful people in our city and beyond. They include our staff at the paper, our advertisers and our loyal readers and contributors. Every one of them contributed to making the Senior Connector what it is today. Without their enthusiasm, support, ideas and dedication, the "seniors own newspaper" would probably not be around today. We ask you to continue to support the new owners and especially the loyal advertisers, without whom there would be no paper. We are turning the operation over to Oncore Central Services. Both Lori and I are excited that they have purchased the paper and look forward to seeing growth and great information for seniors through their contacts and expertise in working with the seniors’ population in the area. See “Farewell”...page 3
ONCORE new owners of Senior Connector
Leigh-Ann Hooley photo
Suzan Goguen (centre), Executive Director of Oncore Central Services, accepts the keys to the Senior Connector from Lori (left) and Mike Keetch (right).
ONCORE Central Services, the new society formed after the amalgamation of Seniors Outreach Society and River City Seniors Society, is the new owner/publisher of the Senior Connector. In partnership with Thompson Rivers University’s Journalism Department, the paper will be distributed by Kamloops This Week the last Tuesday of every month. Brenda Thompson, Chair of Journalism, Communication and New Media at TRU said the partnership with Oncore will be to assist with developing stories, providing photographs, copy editing, layout and design for the Senior Connector. “It will afford our journalism students opportunities for community-based learning. This type of community partnership will benefit the Senior Connector, the students, and, more importantly, the readers.” ONCORE Executive Director Suzan Goguen said the organization’s basic approach to operating the Senior Connector will be similar to the philosophy that has guided the growth and change of the organization for the past three
years. “We have a basic approach that has been working well for us- the client comes first and we try to be creative,” she said. “The former owners put the reader first, so we want to start there and build on that.” “It’s important for the Senior Connector not just to survive, but to continue to grow,” she said. “The Senior Connector is well respected by both the readership and the advertisers but, as recent events confirm, the newspaper business is evolving at a rapid pace”. The new owners envision providing more information for seniors through the Journalism students at TRU and their availability to get out and about more. We look forward to providing the readers and advertisers with the quality and entertainment that they are accustomed to getting in “The Seniors Own Newspaper”. Goguen said she wants the readers to be part of the discussion on issues that affect older adults. “We want readers to contribute through letters, comments, events you want mentioned, advertisements, and most of all, ideas.”