Seven Hills Golf Club teed up a services for senior's forum on Thursday, March 31. The forum is held primarily
once a year and it "brings everybody together," said Gail Neely, chairperson for the Seniors & Elders Better
Living Advisory Committee. "The North Island has bits and pieces here and there, and this way everybody has
the chance to come together. This is a good representation of Sointula, Alert Bay, Port McNeill, Port Hardy and
Port Alice," Neely said. The all-day event started off with a presentation by Port McNeill RCMP Constables
Dave DeMontbrun and Mike McKinlay, who handed out a seniors' guidebook on safety and security and then
spoke on issues such as elder abuse, phone scams, and online frauds. "What the RCMP presented was vital,"
said Neely. "To know about abuse and scams and what seniors can do about it, who they can report to, is
extremely important. If you see something going on, you need to know you can take it to the proper
authorities." After the RCMP had finished their talk, Krista Minar held a chair exercise demonstration, and then
it was time for lunch. After lunch, the event included a provincial council of advisors to seniors advocate report,
an occupational therapy presentation, a home and community care presentation, a focus group discussion, and
door prizes, before finally winding down a little before 3 p.m. "These forums, we try to have them in different
places so that it's more of an all-day thing rather than a morning or afternoon thing," said Neely, adding that she
wanted to say thank you to "Chris Parker, the coordinator of the health network who helped put the event
together, Sandra Warren, the facilitator for the feedback session of the forum, and the Mount Waddington
Health Network itself because that is where we get our financing to put something like this on, we don't have
funds of our own."