Good luck to all our local seniors headed to Burnaby to compete in the BC Senior Games. The Games are being held from Tuesday, August 21 to Saturday, August 25. The BC Seniors Games is an annual multisport competition that celebrates active and healthy seniors aged 55+.
My Italian friends Rino and Rosa Fornari will soon celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary (not only that, they were engaged for 6 years before they got married!). Rino and Rosa moved to Prince George in 1966 and they are still living in the very same house. Rosa went to work for the local school board office. She was one of the first women to work in the school board maintenance department.
Rino started as a labourer for the City of Prince George. He said, "Back then it was all small equipment repairs but it wasn't long before it was all big equipment. Things were certainly different back then." Rino served as the President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 399 in Prince George for 15 years. Rino says, "Way back then Prince George CUPE workers were the lowest paid in all of Canada". Over those 15 years Rino was instrumental in negotiating for better wages, better working conditions, superannuation and equality for women working for the City of Prince George. Rino says, "The fight for equality for women back in those days was a tough fight but we did it. We never had a strike under my leadership!"
In 1990 Rino resigned from CUPE and successfully ran for a three year City Council seat. He is a past board member and governor of the College of New Caledonia.
The years have flown by and Rino and Rosa are now respectively 85 and 84 years young. They keep busy with their beautiful yard and they recently won the "Good Neighbour Award" from the City of Prince George.
Birthdays that I know about for the month of August:
Verne Clark, Helen Dery, Joyce Veitch, Dawn Thesen, Rita Svatos, Judy Dix, Supie Peter, Audrey L'Heureux, Marilyn Goetjen, Faye Meierhofer, Barbara Claffey, Jeannette Goossens, Barb Iwaskow, and Don Grantham.
Grace Spears, a long time member of the Hart Pioneer Centre and also a member of the Weaving Guild, entered four items into the PGX and won four blue ribbons for her work. Congratulations, Grace!
Ron Klusmeier will be at the Knox United Church, 1448 5th Ave., Prince George for a free workshop on music Wednesday, Aug. 29 from 4 to 6 pm, followed by a paid concert at 7:30 pm, - adults $20 - Children/Youth $5.
This week's unintended well kept secret is Gertrude Hildebrandt's homemade jams and jellies available at the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre, at 1692 Tenth Ave.
Email me your information at [email protected]
With my ailing memory, I'm thinking of changing my password to "incorrect: That way, when I log in with the wrong password, the computer will tell me... "Your password is incorrect"!
