Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 06/05) - From belly dancing to walking tours, Senior Citizens Week is being celebrated this week in the NWT.

"There's a wide variety of things happening," says Bea Campbell, the president of the NWT Seniors' Society.

The theme for the week - June 5-11 - is 'Stay Active - Be Healthy'.

Activities are planned for many NWT communities, including Fort Smith, Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Resolution, Fort Simpson, Tulita, Fort Good Hope and Tuktoyaktuk.

Campbell says activities in her hometown of Fort Smith will include recognition of five veterans and a walk along the Slave River boardwalk.

Like last year, there will also be a demonstration of belly dancing for seniors, she notes. "People really, really enjoyed it.

Campbell says everyone is welcomed to join the seniors' activities. "We like to mingle."

In Fort Simpson, one of the highlights will be a coffee house with music and card games.

"It's a nice little social time," says Tom Wilson, president of the Fort Simpson Seniors' Society.

Grade 5 students will also set bedding plants outside the community's seniors' home, he adds.

Communication

Wilson says Senior Citizens Week is very important. "Too often people get older, less mobile, more isolated and sometimes forgotten."

The week's activities encourage inter-generational communication, he notes.

Helen Gruben, a member of the NWT Seniors' Society from Tuktoyaktuk, says one of the activities planned for her community is a barbecue.

Gruben says it is good such events get seniors and young people together.

Senior Citizens Week, which has been celebrated in the NWT for five years, is important for seniors, she adds. "Just to pay them a little attention."

Gruben says it is good such events get seniors and young people together.

Among the other activities planned throughout the NWT are barbecues, teas, bird walks, walking tours, card games, wellness fairs, fish cookouts and community clean-ups by seniors and youth. Posters will advise people of the times and locations of activities in various communities. This is the fifth consecutive year of Senior Citizens Week in the NWT.