Seniors soak up retirement talk

GEOFF LEE STAFF WRITER

It was a senior leading seniors during a National Seniors Day lunch and learn at the Lloydminster Legacy Centre.

More than 120 seniors turned out to hear well known semiretiree, Neil Harris deliver a presentation on the four stages of retirement and resilience in aging last Thursday.

It was seniors week in Saskatchewan from Oct. 1 to 7 as well.

Harris set the tone by introducing himself as a workplace and com -

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Lloyd COPs member numbers have decreased in the last few years, largely due to Covid.

“We’re down to about 15 (people). We were at about 38 before Covid,” said Larry.

“If anybody is interested, they can contact me. We’re always looking for volunteers. We’re short-staffed right now, so we can always use more people.”

Citizens on Patrol support the RCMP in Lloydminster by keeping an eye out for minor crimes within the Border City.

“We’re just concerned citizens in the community. We don’t get involved in the major crime stuff. We just report anything we see that should be reported,” said Larry, adding they have three marked COPs cars that they use on patrol.

They also do another thing to make the City safer through their ‘safe ride home’ service.

“If there’s some type of event like a wedding, Christmas party—we offer to take everybody home in their car. We keep the drunk people off the roads and get them home and their vehicles home too,” said Larry, adding the service is their biggest source of income as munity health and wellness consultant with a unique PhD that stands for pretty happy dude.

“I try not to let life take me down,” said Harris at the podium.

“I’m semi retired. I’m doing some contract work right now. I’m able to fit the things I want to fit in and work when I want to, so it’s quite flexible.”

Harris’ talk is based on a book by researcher Dr. Riley Moynes who likens the first stage of retirement to being on a vacation that lasts about a year.

He says the next stage is loss and feeling lost before the experimental people are encouraged to make a donation in exchange for a safe ride home. stage where you try any number of activities to gain a sense of purpose.

Anyone interested in becoming involved with Lloydminster COPs is encouraged to contact Don Larry at 306-8211862.

Harris says the fourth stage is what Moynes calls squeezing the juice out retirement by giving back to others as Harris is doing right now.

“In doing so you fulfill things for yourself. You get back out to the community; you’re connected. You’re active; you’ve got a reason to get up in the morning,” he said.

Harris is doing just that on his contract with Jordan’s Principle, a federal government program helping

First Nations in Canada access the products, services and supports they need.

Harris also had some other topics in mind to cover during his presentation.

“We’re going to be mentioning some other things like touching around resilience and how to be resilient in our senior years and a little bit about mental health,” he said.

“Part of the presentation will be about loneliness and isolation and how to overcome that.”

Harris also planned to touch on financial

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health and why that’s important.

“It’s kind of a com - bination of all those things,” he said.

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