People sitting at dinning tables in a large hall

About the Cortes Island Seniors Society

“The Cortes Island Senior Society, as it is now called, was registered in 1987, but previous to that there were seniors groups.  I think mainly they called themselves the old age pensioners. They eventually became a seniors group. At some point when they wanted to build,  someone told them that they weren’t even called a building society, so they decided to become the Cortes Island Seniors Building Society, which they were for a number of years,” explained Sue Ellingsen, Vice Chair of the Cortes Island Seniors Society. 

December 18, 2022 Bird Count – Photo by Jurek/ Jan 2023 Cortes Island Seniors Newsletter

Cortes Currents: What did they build when they were the Cortes Island Seniors Building Society? 

Sue Ellingsen: “They didn’t build anything when they were the Building Society. They kind of gave up. At that time, there was a lot of donation of materials. They had piles of lumber that people had donated and various other things, and then I guess they just couldn’t get the money together.”

“When we started up 14 years ago, they were still selling off some materials that hadn’t decomposed, that had been sort of put aside.”

“I think our biggest success overall has been our housing. We successfully built six units for seniors housing, and then in the last three years we completed four more units. So those are probably the biggest successes we’ve had in the last 15 or more years that I’ve been involved.” 

Cortes Currents: What inspired the seniors village? 

Sue Ellingsen: “It was inspired a long time ago. My mother-in-law and father-in-law were trying to get building going in the 1960s, probably 65, but it was all about money not being available or, no one really knowing how to access the money. Whereas now we have some people that are awfully good at looking for grants.”  


 May Ellingsen (Sue’s mother-in-law, left), Flo Dickson (centre), and Elmer Ellingsen (Sue’s father-in-law, right) of the Cortes Island Seniors’ Building Society – courtesy Cortes Island Museum

“I think there was a change of government and change of political situation.  There was a decision made to try and get more housing built, and actually my opinion on that is the government puts up some money, it takes a lot of credit, and the volunteer organizations do an awful lot of work. It’s a good plan they have.”

Cortes Currents: What are the Cortes Island Seniors Society’s goals?  

Sue Ellingsen: “One of the principle things is to build housing for seniors and to cooperate with other organizations to facilitate happy social situations for seniors in general. That could be lunches, or activities, bowling, a number of things. We have a lot of seniors here and quite a few single seniors who could be lonely if there weren’t organizations that provided activities for them. So I think we’re fairly important.” 

“Last year was pretty quiet because everything went very quiet during COVID.  Bowling carried on; home visits to people who needed; a certain number of deliveries; picking up prescriptions; taking people when they had to go to doctors; a few trips taking people to Campbell River. A lot of the lunches were outdoors, and of course we had our 2022 Christmas dinner.” 

Events in January – courtesy Dec 2022 Cortes Island Seniors Society Newsletter

“I was just looking at what we originally had put into our constitution, and one of the things was to support the establishment and management of an operation of a recreational facility for Cortes Island seniors. That was given a lot of thought. It would have complicated things for the community hall. We pay a substantial rent to use a community hall and if we ever managed to get our own facility they would be out quite a sizeable amount of rental income. We just felt it wasn’t sensible to duplicate what was there.” 

“So what happened is we built four units on the site that had been set aside for a senior’s recreational facility. Hopefully that was the best use of it because we still can use the hall.” 

“Another thing that’s in our constitution is that we should make an effort to cooperate with other organizations on community projects.  One that comes to mind right away is when the kitchen was being built in the community hall, the seniors contributed $10,000. Earlier on, I’d say five years ago, we were putting some money into Literacy Now.”

“Financially we’re not in quite as good shape as we were before because the additional four units that we built are subsidized housing. So the rentals are small. Everything’s been set up to make sure we can cover the mortgage. We don’t have as much disposable income as we did. So we haven’t been contributing quite as much to other organizations. That’s something we do when we have money.” 

Affordable housing project on Cortes Island
Construction starts in the Senior’s Village – Roy L Hales photo

Cortes Currents: Are the other six units debt free? Or are they still mortgaged?

Sue Ellingsen: “There’s still mortgage on them, but they’re not subsidized. We set the rental. It was enough to cover the mortgage and give us some extra money every month. That’s why we were accruing some money for a while.” 

BC Housing has had a lot more to do with the four new units, and they tell you exactly how many dollars you can get and how much they’ll put in. They look very carefully at everybody’s income. Anyone who goes into subsidized housing has to produce their T4s and list of any investments and things that they have. Their rent can be established based on their income.” 

“The Cortes Island Senior Society is the landlord. We have to have money put away for when they need new roofs and when the washing machine breaks. There has to be a certain number of dollars for landscaping,  maintenance and other particulars. Probably a slush fund for water system problems and different things like that, but no money that we can really just take a hold of and donate to somebody.”

“Over time I would hope to see the other six units have a sliding scale. To me it makes a lot more sense.  If people have more money, they can pay a little more and the society can certainly use the money for projects.” 

The Cortes Island Academy appeal for seniors to host homestay students – courtesy April 2022 Cortes Island Seniors Newsletter

Cortes Currents: Tell us about the home visits. 

Sue Ellingsen: “We have had someone heading up an organization called Seniors Helping Seniors (Carina Herhoeve) , and that person makes an effort to stay in touch with any people who are single or perhaps have had medical problems or broken bones, and that just might need some attention.”

“The person who’s organizing Seniors Helping Seniors doesn’t necessarily do that herself. She has a list of volunteers and she will just contact someone and say, this person needs a visit. Could you go by and spend some time? It’s nothing more formal than that.” 

Cortes Currents: When I look on the boards of most volunteer organizations on Cortes, they’re primarily seniors. Do you want to make any comment about that?

Sue Ellingsen: “Yeah. I think it’s wonderful when younger people start to get involved in the volunteer organizations but, understandably, they’re busy making a living. So probably people 60 to 80 find themselves with more time and inclination to get involved.” 

“I think the Cortes Island Seniors Society is pretty successful.  We have pretty healthy, happy seniors here on the whole. It’s a great organization and I hope we see more people who are a little younger coming on, because we have a number of people on the board who are 75 or 80, and they’re going to want to retire from the board. We need more of the 60 year olds to come on.” 

Jokes from the Cortes Island Seniors Society Newsletter
Our walk on Friday, December 31, was very, very cold, but, oh, so beautiful!’ – Photo courtesy Jan 2022 Cortes Island Seniors Society Newsletter

“It’s not that it’s part of a seniors society activity, but there are quite a few seniors who are in the habit of walking at least three days a week. That alone is a good social activity and gets your respiratory system working. It’s part of being healthy.” 

Cortes Currents: Do you have any idea how many seniors go walking? 

Sue Ellingsen: “Yeah, I have a good idea. Probably six staunch people that will go come hell or  high water.  In the summertime, quite a few visiting people join. We can have as many as 22 people walking. As people get older, the walkers become more fragmented. Whereas 10 years ago, we would all walk from the hall down to Smelt Bay, down to the park and back to the hall. Now  three people  might do that. You might find four people that take a 10 minute walk through Rainbow Ridge and back and sit and have coffee.  It’s probably fragmented into three different walking groups. It’s all at the same time and they all meet for coffee. So anyone who says it’s too long a walk, that’s nonsense. They can go with the short walkers.” 

Top image credit: Dec 17 , 2922 Chistmas Dinner – from Cortes Island Seniors Society newsletter, Jan 2022

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