On June 19, around 30 Pontiac residents, mostly seniors, convened at the Harrington Community Hall in Chapeau for the local Young at Heart Club’s 28th annual final picnic of the season.

As a free event for members, the gathering served as an opportunity for the group to get together for a final round of good food, fun games and socializing before getting on with their respective summer breaks.

With six different stations set up with various games in the large room including Chutes and Ladders, a series of ball tossing accuracy challenges and card games, participants socialized at their tables and indulged on the delicious food and refreshments provided.

Along with a good old barbecue supper of hamburgers and hotdogs, volunteers supplied a variety of iced cold drinks from the bar, including beer, wine and canned soda among other things.

According to the organization’s President Jérome Sallafranque, the event is an important one for the club as it gives members an opportunity to kick back and hang out as a group one last time before heading their separate ways for the summer.

Every Wednesday, the organization hosts activities starting at the end of September, including potluck dinners on holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. But the last event of the year is always one worth looking forward to.

While the event is typically held at the park outside the building, this year the club decided to take activities indoors due to soggy ground conditions following a heavy flood season this past spring.

“This year, with the water being so high the lawns were too wet where we used to have them,” he said.

With a dedicated group of members and friends participating in the organization’s events, they tend to draw many of the same faces every year, including the Manager of Chartwell Pinewood Retirement Residence in Pembroke Holly MacDonald.

For MacDonald, the Young at Heart festivities provide great personal benefit as they allow her benevolence to have a positive impact that spans wider than the Ottawa Valley and it’s a great opportunity to spend time with great friends. Every year, MacDonald brings along a truck load of gifts and a group of Chartwell Pinewood residents to the event.

“This is my favorite day of work out of the year,” she said. “Because we get to spend time together and play games and whatnot.”

“Our mandate is that we are active in the community,” she added. “So, I do a lot of community outreach in Pembroke and really I hadn’t come to Chapeau before this group so it’s really a great fit.”

While the event didn’t draw as many people as it usually does, Sallafranque wasn’t too disappointed and linked the lack of attendance to a set of unfortunate circumstances in the last couple of weeks.

“The problem is with the turnout this year, we’ve had a funeral,” he said. “There was death in one of the neighbours here. So, we cancelled it for a week. And we ended up with a death this week with the funeral this afternoon. Our numbers are down today compared to other years. But there’s nothing you can do.”

Manager of Chartwell Pinewood retirement residence in Pembroke Holly Macdonald has a blast during the event.

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