1908 was an exciting year—the Ford Model T was introduced, the first passenger flight in an airplane took off, Albert Einstein presented his quantum theory of light and, Mother’s Day was celebrated for the first time. 1908 was also the year Stella George and Eva Holland were born. Both women, St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre residents and active volunteers, will celebrate their 100th birthday surrounded by family, friends and distinguished guests on Friday, July 4, 2008.
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| Stella George and Norm Kelly, City Councillor for Scarborough-Agincourt |
George, a former midwife who started domiciliary services for women in Africa, has been volunteering at St. Paul’s since 1985 as a wing aid giving security checks to neighbours, fire warden, a meals on wheels visitor and a friendly visitor. Since 1980, Holland has volunteered as a wing aid, friendly visitor, and host of the Tetley Tea Time social.
As volunteers, George and Holland have contributed over 10,000 hours combined to St. Paul’s residents and community clients. They were recently honoured at St. Paul’s Volunteer Recognition Event in April and were presented with special achievement awards for their years of dedication.
George and Holland have been able to remain active, engaged and independent with the support services St. Paul’s provides to seniors. With the services provided by community support agencies, celebrating 100th birthdays will become more commonplace as life expectancy increases due to advancements in medical technology and disease management. According to Statistics Canada, people aged 65 and over account for 13.7% of the population. The statistics of the group known as “very old” has also increased. Never before has Canada had so many persons aged 80 years and over: their number topped the 1 million mark for the first time in 2006. The number of centenarians has also increased to 4,635 in 2006—up by 22% from 2001. By 2031, the number of centenarians could triple to more than 14,000 people.
Roberta Wong, Director of Client Care and Community Services, is not surprised by the growing number of seniors living well into a century. “Medical technology, nutrition awareness and disease management are not the only key factors that lead to a longer life expectancy. Seniors, like Stella and Eva, need community support services to assist their activities of daily living.”
To mark this special occasion, St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre will have a private birthday celebration to honour George and Holland on Friday, July 4 at 2:00pm-3:30pm at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre 3333 Finch Ave East, Scarborough, Ontario M1W 2R9
Members of the media are invited to attend. Please rsvp by Thursday, July 3rd to Michele Cauch, Planning and Policy Development Officer 416-493-3333 ext 271.
