Above: More than two dozen seniors were involved in a Rotary Club of Morinville project to write, direct, act and produce five awareness videos on different aspects of elder abuse. The seniors were from Morinville, Legal and Sturgeon County.
Below: RCMP Cst Peter Tearle speaks to seniors.
by Lucie Roy
For World Elder Abuse Awareness Day more than 50 people attended an awareness event at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre on Friday.
The all-day event included videos produced by local seniors.
More than 25 seniors from Morinville, Legal and Sturgeon County met at the Rendez Vous to create, act, produce, and direct short commercial style videos on Elder Abuse.
This also contained a short Bloopers video.
Speakers included the emcees Stephen Dafoe and Paul Smith who were involved in the video productions through Soaring Pig Studios and Smith Music.
Above: Melissa Kondro
Melissa Kondro of the Stop Abuse in Families (SAIF) was the first speaker of the morning session and was followed by Ruth Adria of the Elder Advocacy of Alberta who gave a passionate presentation. Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken brought greetings and spoke of the importance of seniors in our communities.
Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation (JMMF) speakers included new Executive Director Lori Shortreed, Outreach Worker Lisa Riley and Teena Hughson.
Sturgeon Victim Services presentations were made by Kristine McDonnell and RCMP Cst Peter Tearle.
Morinville Community Library showed a 1988 National Film Board of Canada documentary titled A House Divided, A Caregiver Stress and Elder Abuse.
Th event was in partnership with the Rotary Club of Morinville, Morinville FCSS Town of Morinville, Morinville Community Library and with a grant from the Government of Canada’s New Horizon for Seniors Program.
