Since the late 1960’s the New Horizons Seniors Centre has provided seniors from the Yorkton area and across Western Canada with activities for their entertainment.
The organization for people 65 and older can owe some of its beginning to the George Morris family, who owned its first-ever headquarters.
Peter Legebokoff, the president of the Yorkton New Horizons Seniors Centre, said that without the Morris family, the New Horizons Centre might not be what it is today.
“The family were early sponsors and supporters for the New Horizons Senior Citizens. They (New Horizons) used that building as their first headquarters, and they used it for a number of years.”
The Morris’s contribution to the Yorkton New Horizons didn’t stop there.
“The building only had limited sustainability, so the New Horizons Senior Citizens wanted a bigger, more sustainable premises, but they didn’t have the money,” said Legebokoff. “George and Helen Morris they loaned the group $25,000 for the down payment for the place (the current location), and they provided an interest-free mortgage, and in 1976, the hall was purchased by the New Horizons.”
The hall, which was first built in 1953 and used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has had quite the makeover in its 68-year history.
“Over the years that the New Horizon has been here to improve the building and did major updates to the building, and today you see a hall that has been renovated and upgraded numerous times with the help of grants from Ottawa, community donations, and the Painted Hand Casino.”
Legebokoff adds that the most recent upgrades saw new maple flooring installed and the complete repainting and redecoration of the upper level, entirely new paint with most upgrades thanks to a donation from Vivian Murphy and money the New Horizons has saved up.
While the buildings have been changed and upgraded, so have the activities that have been offered. Once, it was cards, bingo, and small social dances, with the building being used for public education for senior citizens. Now Legebokoff said that the card and bingo players have disappeared as those seniors moved into places like retirement homes.
“The New Horizons Centre has had to react and adapt to these changing times and deliver the kinds of services and activities and that people need and want,” he said. “Another major change that we are confronted with is the changing demographic. The senior citizens of yesterday are pretty much gone, and the future senior citizens were yesterday’s baby boomers. Their needs, wants, aspirations, and expectations are going to be quite different from what was delivered to senior citizens of the past. The new generation of senior citizens will be expecting a different kind of level of activities.”
Legebokoff said that the pandemic has just accelerated these changes, and he expects that once things open back up, the New Horizon Centres will have to reinvent themselves. He says that the biggest challenge they face in the future is adapting to the new seniors. You will be looking to them for something to do in the community.
Legebokoff said before the pandemic; he felt that the organization was in a very good place.
“This was a well-managed, well-run organization; the volunteer administrators had always performed very well here, and we had good financial reserves, we could survive the shock of the pandemic, and the lost revenue and adapt to that,” he said. “Things like the public and social dancing will no doubt continue here because it was a very popular event. We are just waiting for the time when we can hold crowded-based events again, and there will probably be a continued demand and interest; in doing that here.”
As for during the pandemic, it has been a quiet time, but they have never stopped looking and planning for when they are able to return to their services to the seniors, something Legebokoff is hopeful could happen by the fall.
Legebokoff said he feels the Yorkton New Horizons Senior Centre is important because it gives seniors something to do, but it also is keeping a piece of Yorkton history alive.
“It has served the needs of seniors citizens in Yorkton and related groups, and it’s important to maintain this organization because needs will arise, evolve, and the New Horizons Senior Citizens has the experience and the capacity to meet these needs, some of which haven’t yet been identified. We will keep going, because we are also interested in maintaining this building, this hall, because it has elements of a heritage building, and it would be a pity if it would to disappear from the face of the year, but it has a role to play right now, and we are willing to maintain it’s operation. If it wasn’t for the senior citizens of Yorkton, this hall might have very well been shut down years ago and become a parking lot. We are interested in maintaining it as a character-building and also serving the needs of the community for activities and social events.”
