Moose Jaw seniors 'being forgotten' as 2 rec centres on brink of closure

The Cosmo Senior Citizen's Centre and the Moose Jaw and District Senior Citizens Association will have to close if they can't come up with money for basic functions of their buildings.

The centres' government funding was cut in 1993. Since then, they have survived on membership fees, donation, lotteries, revenue from programs and renting out the spaces.

The Moose Jaw and District centre often faces a deficit of anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 a year.  

Elaine Parsons, a board member for the district association, said they have had to dip into their reserves almost every year to make ends meet and now the money is running out. The revenue at their centre is usually a little more than $300,000 per year.

Our big expense is wages, the utilities ... You can't get grants for those.- Robert Cobbe, Cosmo Senior Citizen's Centre board member

"If we don't get some help financially, we will probably be closing the doors by the end of the year or early next year," she said.

"It would be devastating. Our seniors would not have a place to go to socialize, to exercise, to just visit and get along with each other."

Both centres are banding together and holding a town hall on April 28 at the Cosmo centre. They hope to get some fundraising ideas, maybe raise some money and let the community know about what's going on.  

Parsons said she has spoken with nearly all the service clubs in town to get the word out.

"I realize most of their money is tied up in youth and youth is a great thing and I think youth should be supported," she said. 

"But the other side is being forgotten. We're being forgotten."

Robert Cobbe is on the board at the Cosmo Senior Citizen's Centre. He said he hopes that the town hall meeting they have will yield a group of people willing to go to a town council meeting and talk to council about funding. He also said that the loss of these centres would be a big upset to the community. 

"One way to get better mental health, you have to get out, you have to stay active, you have to, you know, communicate and visit and interact with other people so that's... a lot of that would be lost for our members," he said.

Cobbe said they have applied for and gotten grants in the past, but that grants are usually reserved for new programs, not power bills or roof repairs or maintenance.

He said the Cosmo centre could apply for a grant to pay for a pickleball program for example, but wouldn't necessarily get them what they need.

"You have to paint the lines on the floor for the court, you have to maybe get a little bit of equipment, well, that's not your big expense," he said. 

"Our big expense is wages, the utilities ... You can't get grants for those."