Retirees

2019 Year So Far
2019 is already shaping up to be a great year.
Sessions have included: Preplanning Your Funeral/Final Wishes,
The Benefits of Acupuncture,
Improving Quality of Life for Seniors by a Regional Advisor,
Ontario Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility for Hamilton,
Reduced cost tickets for a limited number of retirees to see Jane Goodall’s lecture ‘Jane at 85: Reasons for Hope’,
The Retired Workers Chapter Annual General Meeting
A movie matinee of the movie ‘Book Club’.
In the works are sessions on:
Canada’s New Food Guide & Healthy Snacking with a Community Food Advisor with the City of Hamilton
Nourishing Your Digestion with a local Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
A session covering All About Ticks/Lyme Disease with an Inspector from Hamilton Public Health
A session on Emergency Preparedness and Home Fire Safety with the Hamilton Fire Department
Retiree Benefits Review with  Jim McAndrew, Health & Safety Coordinator for the Local
Home Sharing Options for Seniors (a la Golden Girls)
and our Annual Potluck Luncheon.
There are a few other workshops in the works as well.

All of the exercise programs continue (Yoga, Tai Chi, and Gentle Cardio, Balance and Strength), plus we have added an outdoor Walking Club.

2018 Year in Review
2018 turned out to be a great year, especially for retirees. The calendar of events, geared to keep our retirees informed and active, included: a loose leaf tea tasting presented by Steeped Tea; a hands-on natural perfume making workshop by Awesym Aromatics; a medication awareness / how to talk to your doctor seminar through Unifor National; a CPP/OAS information session for retirees by a Service Canada Representative; a nutrition presentation / cooking demonstration for seniors by  a City of Hamilton Community Food Advisor; a financial assessment of everything retirement by an Investment Advisor with First Ontario Credit Union; a Let’s Take a Walk workshop including a hike by the Hamilton Council on Aging; a bus trip to Port Dover to catch a play at the Lighthouse Festival Theatre with lunch at the Beach House restaurant; a Healthy Brains Mind Buster session; a Wills and Estate Planning and Powers of Attorney session; a workshop entitled ‘Engaging Seniors in Civic Dialogue: from Dialogue to Action’ presented by Ontario Society of Senior Citizens’ Organizations; a Safe Computing seminar; a chocolate making workshop by Chocolate Tales; and the annual potluck luncheon. As well we offered a variety of exercise programs including: Yoga; Tai Chi; and Gentle Cardio, Balance and Strength.

2017 Year in Review
2017 saw the creation of Local 5555’s Retired Workers Chapter. With the passing of our founding bylaws and an online survey to help us determine what our retirees were looking for, we were off to a successful start to a busy year. We hosted seminars and workshops featuring: Kaitlyn McDermott, Volunteer Coordinator, from Volunteer Hamilton along with Mary Long, Senior Manager, Labour Community Service, United Way Halton and Hamilton speaking to us on volunteer opportunities; our Local’s Health and Safety Coordinator, Jim McAndrew, spoke to us about retiree benefits and coverage and how it differs from the coverage we had as active employees; Léony deGraaf Hastings a Certified Financial Planner, Elder Planning Counselor and Retirement and Estate Planning Specialist explained probate, the role of Executor and estate expectations; and Kathryn Kimmins who led us in a session of Laughter Yoga. We participated in Hamilton’s 2nd Annual International Day of Older Persons Celebration Lunch and attended the Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show at Gage Park Greenhouse. We supported our brothers and sisters in Unifor Local 112 during the Northstar plant occupation, and walked the picket line with Unifor Local 88 during the CAMI strike, and shared buses with Unifor Local 707 retirees to participate in the CLC convention in Toronto. We undertook lessons in Tai Chi and Yoga, and held a Movie Matinee screening of ‘The Help’. The Local sponsored one of our retirees, Jeanne Norris, to attend Unifor’s week long Retired Workers Council in Port Elgin.  A few of us also tagged along on this year’s Recreation Committee’s annual ‘Spirits and Shopping Tour’ in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake. At our final meeting of the year, in December, we held a Pot Luck luncheon

Retired Workers Chapter Executive Board, from left to right: Mike Palme, Sergeant-at-Arms; Rosemary Viola, Chairperson; Liz Denesiuk, Member-at-Large; Dianne Bird, Secretary/Financial Officer; Rose Galano, Member-at-Large; and Kathy Ouellette, Member-at-Large. Missing from the photo was Nancy Clark, Vice-Chairperson.