Moosomin achieves Age-Friendly status
May 7, 2025, 1:10 pm
Nicole Taylor
Last Friday, Lori Carr, Minister of Seniors and Rural and Remote Health, officially announced Moosomin as an Age-Friendly community. The award, presented by the Government of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM), acknowledges the promotion of activities and programming that are more inclusive of seniors.
Wendy Thienes with Age Friendly Saskatchewan was the Master of Ceremonies for the event.
“Age-Friendly Saskatchewan is part of the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM), a provincial non-profit volunteer organization working toward quality of life for all older adults in Saskatchewan,” said Thienes, “They have been working since 2013 in this province. We have many communities, and today, Moosomin is the eighth community that we are going to be celebrating.”
Thienes said she is impressed with the inter-generational involvement with Age-Friendly Moosomin, and encourages others to continue to mentor young people.
“My challenge to you would be to mentor others and to mentor younger generations. Your December dinner comes to mind about the inter generational feast and working with fundraising for the daycare, while bringing the kids into the mix with the placemats that they created, and helping to serve the dinner. It was a great dinner and social outing, but also interacting with the kids is amazing,” said Thienes, “Thank you again everyone, for coming out to celebrate this with the committee and the community. To the volunteers of Age-Friendly Moosomin, you are seen and you are appreciated, so keep up the good work.” said Thienes.
Lori Carr, Minister of Seniors and Rural and Remote Health, congratulated Moosomin on reaching Age-Friendly status.
“I want to acknowledge all of the Age- Friendly folks who have put so much passion into the work and this initiative that we have”, said Carr, “It’s a pleasure to be here today to recognize Moosomin for the hard work of many to achieve Age-Friendly status. In a society that values the inclusion of all within its communities, it’s important to have the infrastructure and services that seniors need on a daily basis,” said Carr. “That’s why Age-Friendly programs are so important.”
“An Age-Friendly community understands and meet the age-related needs of older adults,” explained Carr, “This program recognizes communities which prioritize inclusion of seniors, and the valuable contributions they continue to bring to our communities.” Explained minister Carr, “Congratulations to the community of Moosomin for your commitment to keep the needs of seniors top of mind, and recognizing how the community can play a role in enhancing the quality of life for all. I want to thank the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism for it’s work with the applicants to ensure they meet the required benchmarks to attain Age-Friendly status, and to support communities on their Age-Friendly journey,” said Carr. “Your continuous enthusiasm for enhancing the lives of seniors in this province is greatly appreciated and we look forward to working together in support of this great initiative. Congratulations to Moosomin!”
Age-Friendly Saskatchewan operates under SSM, and do their Age-Friendly work through the establishment of an Age-Friendly Saskatchewan committee. There is a provincial committee of volunteers that come together regularly to meet, plan and work with staff to support the establishment and the ongoing support of Age-Friendly committees across the province.
The current chair of this board, Linda Pratt, was at the event to congratulate the community of Moosomin.
“I am really pleased to be able to bring you greetings from Age-Friendly Saskatchewan and SSM on this wonderful milestone that you have achieved,” said Pratt, “Looking at some of the successes that Age-Friendly Moosomin has had, it’s really impressive.”
Pratt credits Moosomin Age-Friendly’s success to the organization’s approach when they first reached out to the community. “I think we go back to the survey, when you started with that,” said Pratt, “The response to the survey in the community was really high, and through the focus groups as well.
Through that, you are able to get a sense of what it is that people want and need,” said Pratt, “You have a good guideline to build your program on. That is really important and it’s an excellent start. The things that came out of that were the sidewalks, the rest areas, and communication of events. When you look at what was done about that, I read about the 22 benches in the community that were built, and as an older adult I really appreciate the opportunity to have benches to sit down and rest when you’re going anywhere. The awareness of the sidewalks—as I understand, you did a whole survey of the town, and came up with the sidewalks that needed fixed. This is where Age-Friendly can work on a project, except you’re not going to go fixing sidewalks, so now you need to be a catalyst to others who have the authority to actually fix those things.” said Pratt.
Pratt says she is impressed with the programs Age-Friendly Moosomin has implemented within the community.
“Coffee hour that you have at the coffeehouse is an excellent way for people to meet, to get out, and to have a place to go,”said Pratt, “I looked at the pictures on the Facebook page, and they look like they’re really fun!”
“Tech-time with seniors; what a wonderful thing,” said Pratt. “Something that’s really been picked up by the community. I know that you got a grant to do that, and to put together various older adults and younger people who have the skills, older adults then talk to their family and gather information about things they did not have access to before. It’s a program that I hope will go on for some time.”
Pratt says she was impressed with the support from the local media, and the use of social media to promote Age-Friendly Moosomin. “I know the local media has been really good at providing support and getting the information out there and your use of Facebook. I am sure many of you go on there to see what is going on, and the various upcoming events.
“Then transportation,” said Pratt, “What rural community doesn’t have a challenge with transportation? I know you are working on that now. With these activities you have actually covered five of the eight domains of Age-Friendly, which I will say, is really impressive.”
“The important thing is what you have done to go out and find someone else who is doing it, get the good ideas, see what they are doing, find out what works for them, and what will work in your community.”
“Age-Friendly is a journey, not a destination. Moosomin is doing a really good job on that journey, and I just want to say congratulations on that and keep up the good work,” said Pratt.
“Saskatchewan has 19 Age-Friendly communities across Saskatchewan. We started in 2021, so we have been at it a short time, but we have done a fair bit.”
said Devona Putland, with Age-Friendly Moosomin.”I just want to thank everyone who came out today for coming and supporting us once again. We have had quite a few coffeehouses, and we have had as many as 75 people come out, we have had as few as 20, but it’s just getting out, seeing each other, knowing what its going on. That is what matters, and that is what we hope to be.”
“Linda called it the “catalyst” and I think of it as a “spark plug”, said Putland, “our community runs on many “spark plugs,” and our committee is a “spark plug” in this community. We try to get that engine running, and get things going for people in our community.”
Putland gave a special thanks to the Moosomin Seniors Group. ”Recently we partnered with Moosomin Seniors Group in order to apply for the Rural Transportations Solutions fund grant,” said Putland. “We had to have incorporated status, and charitable status, and that group already had it.
From what I could find out from the government sources, our town has a lot of charitable numbers in it, and the chances of us getting another one, would take a long process, “ said Putland, “To be incorporated would take us over a year, and by joining with the Moosomin and District Seniors club, we ended up cutting a good year out of that process, maybe even more. The grant is going to be done in partnership with them.”
Putland says that when the Age-Friendly group gets an idea, they run with it. “Most of the time we are going down the right path because we have access to what the community says,” said Putland. “We listen. We have done awareness of aging and awareness of things in our community that may be lacking.”
Putland says everyone is welcome and encouraged to become involved with Age-Friendly Moosomin.
“Anybody is welcome to come join the committee, I am always looking for more people to help. Hopefully we can keep this committee going long into the future,” said Putland.
“My family is up north of Moosomin in Churchbridge, and they keep saying “When are moving home? You are retired, you could move home” and I say “but Moosomin is home” said Putland, “This is a great place to be.”
Age-Friendly Moosomin meets at the Regional Library the second Monday of every month at 7 pm.
You can follow the Age-Friendly Moosomin facebook page for updates and upcoming events.
