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Fall Section inside! Your LOCAL Media since 1918! VOLUME 107: ISSUE 05
www.tofieldmerc.com
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Tofield Golden Club unveils new shuttle Kari Janzen Staff Reporter The Tofield Golden Club’s shuttle arrived in Tofield on Friday, September 13, having been ordered about six months ago and came from China. The shuttle, donated by ATS Traffic, arrived mostly assembled and about 15 Golden Club members met to put the finishing touches on the electric vehicle on Saturday, September 14. “I picked it up on Friday, and we put it together Saturday morning,” said Golden Club treasurer Jim Robichaud. “We had a blast; it was so much fun. We’ve been waiting for this for such a long time. It got here just prior to tariffs being considered for holding back electric vehicles from China,” he said. Robichaud said the electric vehicle can plug into a regular outlet, and that it serves as a free, fair-weather option for senior transportation within the town of Tofield. “It has a charger that plugs into just a regular outlet. We have 15 drivers signed up, that's how popular the notion is, and we'll run three shifts a day,” he said. The vehicle has seatbelts, can reach up to 30km/h, and seats eight people including the driver. Getting the shuttle is one step in completing phase one of the Tofield of Dreams, and is part of building an age-friendly community. “We want to be part of an agefriendly community. It's an initiative done by the federal government and various municipalities have adopted it including Olds, County of Strathcona, and now the City of Calgary is trying to adopt age-friendly communities. With this, it's very important that we reach certain criteria to qualify and one of the qualifying aspects of it is providing transportation for seniors. So, that inspired us to find a way to get to the seniors who are house bound, especially after Covid,” Robichaud said. Laine Hooper, owner of ATS Traffic, and his wife Deb visited Tofield on Friday, September 20 to see the constructed shuttle and take it for a joyride to see the town of Tofield. “My dad passed about two and a half years ago, and he gave a lot back to the community,” Laine Hooper said, “but he always flew under the radar, so getting recognition for things like this doesn't
come easy for us, but we appreciate the thanks.” Local businesses have registered and insured the shuttle. “KC Insurance has come up to bat, and they're looking after the insurance on it for us. We are so appreciative to them, because, in a small town that's quite a bit for any company to take on. We had Thor Insurance put the plates on it, register it, and Peter from Rusty Wheel did the out of province inspection on it,” Robichaud said. “I was approached by Jim and KC is honoured to sponsor insurance on the Tofield Golden Club's new unit,” Brenda Williams said. Robichaud said while there is senior transportation with the Tofield Bus, they were looking for something fun for the Golden Club. “We first thought of a bus, but the Town has one and it is very effective and very necessary for the town, especially for the handicapped, because we can't accommodate that with this particular unit. This shuttle is also seasonal, only when the climate will allow us to do it, because it's not enclosed and it's not heated. But we wanted something that would be fun, not something you have to book two days in advance. All you have to do is pick up your phone and we will drop what we're doing and come out, pick you up, take you to where you want to go, free for seniors,” Robichaud said. Other work that is being done in phase one of the Tofield of Dreams includes building upgrades in preparation of the expansion, and a new heating and cooling unit is soon to be installed. “We've got a brand-new furnace and air conditioning being installed in the next few weeks that will be able to accommodate the new building. We just had new electric services put in, because we've never had enough electricity here to be able to plug a couple of things at the same time, so now we've got our electrical upgraded. We are also insulating some walls in here, because they get very cold, and we're going to repaint the facility as well. We're doing upgrades, and that’s all part of phase one for the Tofield of Dreams,” said Robichaud. The Golden Club currently has over 140 members, up from 18 at this time last year.
PHOTO BY KARI JANZEN Laine Hooper, owner of ATS Traffic, and his wife Deb visited Tofield on Friday, September 20 to see the new shuttle and take it for a joyride to see the town of Tofield. “Membership went as low as eight and then we started to build it over the past year and a half,” Robichaud said. “We're really happy with where we are. From the very beginning, we stated it was going to be a three-to-five-year project. We're only in year one, so for us to come as far as we have in this short of period is phenomenal. One of the things that we got hung up on was charitable status, so now that we do have charitable designation it’s going to allow us to reach out to people that otherwise we couldn't,” Robichaud said. In a presentation to the Hooper’s, Robichaud talked about the club’s history, and said the facility is going to be for the whole community. “My wife Beatrice and I, we've been in Tofield now for 18 years and we came here to get away from the rat race, as are a lot of people. We are actually growing, developing, and what we're embarking on is something that is going to be really good for Tofield and the future of Tofield. “We came here to be part of a smaller community. We were attracted to the town, now we're attracted to the people, and we want to do something for the town,” he said. Robichaud said that seniors clubs have not been doing well because seniors now have different interests than before. “Seniors clubs since Covid have been collapsing because people don't come out and when they do come out, they
don't want to go into a club and play cards only. They don't want to come in and just do some of those mundane things that only seniors do. They want to play pickleball, do something exciting, get into shape, be active, and that's what the Tofield of Dreams is going to do,” he said. Robichaud said the original building was the fire station, and when the Golden Club took it over in 1974, they added on the kitchen area, but left the north wall wooden in expectation of future expansion. “This is our 50th anniversary. When they put this addition on, they left the north wall as a wooden wall for an addition at some point in time, and that's what we're doing. We're blowing this wall out and going 88 feet out and 80 feet across. We're putting in a games room and a full gymnasium. We're working with the schools and the gym teachers to design the gymnasium to be suitable for all sports. The whole idea here is that the seniors want to give back. We want to have a purpose,” he said. Robichaud said the project is expected to cost $1.5 million, and that the building will be used by everyone, not just seniors. “The facility that we're going to build is going to be such that the whole community will use it, and we'll use it in the off hours when others aren't,” Robichaud said.