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Sooke Dance Studio’s talented performers get to show off their latest moves at Disneyland in California Page B1
News Opinion Community
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Sooke is Selling!
SPORTS 2 8 15
Sooke Saltwater Series casts a line and reels in fishers for an event that helps the local economy and beyond Page 19
Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
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2015 Sooke Home Sales: 349 2014 Sooke Home Sales: 300 TAMMI DIMOCK
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M E D I A
Mission accomplished District of Sooke council members along with Jordan Sturdy, MLA for West VancouverSea to Sky, celebrated the completion of the Brownsey Boulevard Roundabout and Sooke Towncentre Improvemnents on Monday. The multimillion-dollar project was months in the making. Participating in the ceremony at the roundabout were Coun. Rick Kasper, Coun. Bev Berger, acting mayor Kevin Pearson, Sturdy, Coun. Ebony Logins and Coun. Brenda Parkinson. Kevin Laird/Sooke News Mirror
SENIORS’ CENTRE FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE Dwindling membership and a place to call home are stumbling blocks Octavian Lacatusu Sooke News Mirror
For seniors, the Sooke Community Hall, which serves as the Seniors Drop In Centre, isn’t just a place to gather and socialize, it’s a lifeline — and one that is just breaths away from flatlining. The number of volunteers and members
is one of several issues to be discussed at the organization’s annual general meeting Dec. 3, which includes the ongoing search for a treasurer and vice president, positions that haven’t been filled in years. Dec. 10 will mark the last day of operation for the drop-in centre, as well as the last day of bingo for 2015. But as the centre is set to re-open its doors on Jan. 12, its future is uncertain, particularly if Carol Pinalski, the organization’s president, has to fill her role again next year. “I’m getting to the end of my tether,” laughed Pinalski, who hasn’t been relieved
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of her position for the last eight years because there simply was no one around to do it. “I’ve worked so hard to try and get a place for us. I’d just hate to give it up, but I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. In recent memory, the seniors drop in centre started off at the corner of Otter Point and Sooke road (where Academy Dental is located now) – there, the building was fully-independent, close to the town core, and open to anybody over 55 to drop in for coffee, or a bite to eat, or to simply visit and socialize.
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The organization had almost 300 members, but after it had to move, Pinalski said it just went “downhill” from there. “We had no place to go. Firefighters let us use their lounge, but eventually they needed their lounge back, so now we’re at the community hall,” she said, adding that even on itself was, and is, a challenge. “We’re non-profit, so we don’t make any money … we can’t afford to be paying $2,000 a month for rent.” SEE SENIORS • PAGE 7
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