APRIL 2021 GREETINGS from the PRESIDENT
Hello Everyone,
“Life is as changeful as a prairie spring, or a river with a lot of twists and bends”. That says it all! This time of the year is always a bit strange in Southern Alberta as we shed the winter season with hopes of the arrival of spring. It seems to tease us with beautiful sunny days followed by wind, rain, sleet, and snow. With the COVID pandemic, we have had to make hundreds of changes in the way we think and do normal things. We have pondered life and re-thought priorities and attitudes. I am sure we have all concluded that without good health, we have nothing. We’ll do whatever it takes which includes getting our vaccine shot!
For over a year, we have wondered when our nation will return to some sort of “normalacy”. It appears now with the emerging variants, we are entrenched in lockdowns and more regulations about safe gatherings. SWARTA Newsletters, ARTA news&views, ARTAFACTS, and ATA News have done an excellent job in keeping us informed about the work that continues regardless of COVID and protocol. However, what we really miss and need is more human connection with our members. My optimism for a quicker recovery has turned to realism that our SWARTA needs to join the ZOOM world. Your SWARTA EXECUTIVE held a ZOOM meeting last week. We have decided that our SWARTA Newsletters will be supplemented with ZOOM presentations and COFFEE CHAT time. ARTA will provide funds for a one-year ZOOM license.
Our first ZOOM ‘webinar will be held on Thursday, May 6 at 10:00. See details in this Newsletter. If you have never used Zoom, it is easy and quite straight forward. When you register, you will be sent an ARTA prepared guide that will act as a guide. To get on the Zoom session will be as easy a clicking on the link included in the email that will be sent out to you after you register. I know that our first session with Sylvia Kasper from the Calgary Cooperative Memorial Society will be most helpful for yourself, your parent, or friends. There will an opportunity to ask questions. SWARTA had booked her for May 2020 and then October 2020, but had to postpone both sessions.
A very informal COFFEE CHAT Zoom session is scheduled for Thursday, June 10 at 10:00 am. The idea is just to have some face-to-face time with other SWARTA members. Make yourself a cup of coffee or smoothie and join in the chatter. You might even want to bake your favorite muffins to visually share with the rest of us. More information will be e-mailed to you.
ARTA WELLNESS CHALLENGE is a program that encourages all of us to participate in wellness activities from April 1 to June 30. The list of activities that you might like to participate in are listed in the ARTA news&views Spring Issue , pp 38-40. Keep track of the minutes spent on your activities. At the end of June choose 30 of your best 30 days. You may send the total number of minutes to me at bobpawlowski@hotmail.com or directly to ARTA at jhope@arta.net. Without question, the simplest, most affordable and accessible-to-all ages exercise is walking. But any and all the suggestions are just a beginning of the activities that you can do to keep your body, mind, spirit FIT. That’s what is important!
Hoping the day is coming soon when we can get together. But in the meantime keep safe, keep fit, keep smiling. Take care.
Doreen Pawlowski
President of SWARTA
