At the recent AGM I reflected on my memories of the past five years as your President. When I began my first term we were in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic amid all the restrictions and precautions and forced isolations we were experiencing. We discovered masks and disinfectant hand washes and Zoom meetings. I’m sure we all hope to never suffer those fears again. Fortunately, those days are in the past and we are now fully back in operation, and have been for some time. The last two years have seen a complete resurgence of our customary activities, including regular wonderful lunches, a variety of excellent fitness classes, an outstanding lineup of superior Learning in Retirement courses, and an exciting array of special lunch-time talks, wonderful evening musical concerts and entertaining outings, just to name a few.
This has all been possible only due to the devotion and selfless time donated by our amazing volunteers, the hard-working members of the Board of Directors, and our great staff: Executive Director Svetlana, Executive Assistant Luba, and Chef Daniella. We all owe them a tremendous amount of appreciation. I personally want to thank one and all for the support given to me and the Centre over the past year and indeed over all five years of my time as President. I am not running away, I will still be here as your Past President and plan to stay as involved as possible. And I want to offer our new President, Susan Baram, best wishes for a successful term and a promise of continued support and encouragement. I am sure we will be in capable hands going forward.
One thing I’m particularly proud of is the recent improvements to our basement classroom. It started with the old TV starting to fail, with the audio cancelling out at most inconvenient times during various lectures and presentations. That was replaced about a year ago with a really good 75-inch 4K smart television set accompanied by a superior sound system. More recently, a significant amount of acoustic panelling was installed on the walls, along with several full-length mirrors, to greatly enhance the usefulness of the room. It isn’t just me, everyone can tell that it is much easier to hear speakers now in that space. Additionally, the wonderful collection of DVD movies that was donated by the estate of Doug Hughes (Z”L) has been unpacked and installed in a new shelf, providing us with a large variety of Israeli, International and Classical American films for our enjoyment. There are certainly a number of potential film programs that could be cobbled together from this collection, and stay tuned, I’ll be sorting that out in the near future.
We acknowledge the following who have given us grants and donations:
The City of Edmonton
Jewish Federation of Edmonton
ORT Edmonton
Edmonton Jewish Community Charitable Foundation and the Osten Fund
Jewish Agency for Israel:
Sam Ousher Switzer Charitable Foundation
Heritage Canada, Government of Canada: Promoting intercultural understanding and inclusion & Be an Active Member of Your Community
New Horizons for Seniors, Government of Canada: Our Cookbook Project #2 for 2026
I have held numerous executive positions in my life; I want to thank everyone involved for making this one of the most memorable and rewarding of all.
Sam Koplowicz