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News of Canadian Abbeyfield Societies
Abbeyfield Annapolis Valley Society, ON
We are about to see a first House established in Atlantic Canada. Interchurch Housing Society, based in Kentville, Nova Scotia, formed an Abbeyfield Society. After a long search for a suitable property, the society are about to open a converted Manse as an Abbeyfield in the university town of Wolfville.The first BC Chapter meeting to be held in the interior was a great success and attracted representatives from the Okanagan, Grand Forks, and Golden. There was a wider scope to the meeting with the attendance of Abbeyfielders from Banff and High River, Alberta.
In 1956, Richard Carr-Gomm, our Founder, opened the first house in Bermondsey, London, England, and became its first housekeeper. The house was in a terrace and had cold water and an outhouse.
Over the years, the typical house has had ten residents. In Canada, Abbeyfield Houses have ranged in size from 5 to 14, and three Societies in the Lower Mainland, BC, have two houses of 9 or 10 residents each standing side by side. In our view, the larger the house, the more risk there is that it will lose its home-like atmosphere.
This House in Wolfville is an older model; it is rented from St Andrew's United Church and has room for only five residents. There is a strong local committee and they expect to open in September.
When a new Society starts we use a 'buddy' system; that is, we put the new group in touch with an existing Society so that they can see a House in action. For the first House in Atlantic Canada, this poses a problem – the nearest House is in Ottawa – but Sharon Campbell, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs Dawson Lang, former and much-loved residents of Abbeyfield Lakeside House, Toronto, lives in the Annapolis Valley and has offered to advise them.
Abbeyfield Houses Society of Dauphin, MAN
A Society has been formed in Dauphin, Manitoba, so now there are only three provinces that don't have Abbeyfield Societies yet. Allen Dunsmore contacted us as follows:
''A group is being established in Dauphin, MB, to establish an assisted-living housing project in our community. As with most communities in rural Canada, we are generally well served with personal care homes and there are several apartment buildings for seniors but there are no facilities to accommodate the in-between area. We viewed the information available on the Internet about the Abbeyfield Houses and we feel this type of organization would work well in our community.
'Dauphin is a community in rural Manitoba with a population of about 9000 and it has been recognized by statistics Canada as having the highest percentage of residents over sixty-five in the province. We are starting to do a survey in an effort to quantify the need for this type of housing. It is our understanding that the concept is to construct facilities which are small enough to fit into a residential neighborhood. We are fortunate to have a benefactor who is prepared to donate a sizable amount of money to the project.
In 1999, Doug Soman of Abbeyfield Kelowna received a telephone call from a local woman enquiring if there were Abbeyfield Houses in Manitoba, as her mother, who lives in Dauphin, was interested. We are not sure if this is connected to the Assisted Living Housing Project, but it does indicate how enquiries build up through word-of-mouth.
Here is a Duncan, BC–Dauphin, Manitoba connection. A previous newsletter described the llamas at Abbeyfield OBrien House, Duncan, BC, and an article in the Globe and Mail describes the use of llamas to look after sheep. Mention is made of a farmer in the Dauphin area whose llama, Duff, guards 20 sheep. Another llama-breeder mentions a sheep-producer who spun the llamas hair, played violin to the llama and cross-trained it as a recreational pack-animal for Rocky Mountain treks, thus going back to their original use in the South American Andes 6,000 years ago.S.
