Double Ninth Festival Senior Caring Trip

October 1 of each year is National Seniors Day, which is an occasion for Canadians to celebrate the profound contributions of seniors in our homes, communities and workplaces. Oct 4 is the Double Ninth Festival 2022. On Oct 4, 2022, WuTong together with 5 more volunteers QiDa, MeiJuan, Waifun, Ming Huang and Sophia, visited a local Senior Home in Vancouver. Because of the COVID-19, we were limited for 5 people to communicate with the seniors at the same time.

We went with lucky lions, happy big head buddha, and 21 small bags of gifts such as scarfs, socks, gloves, hats and other small things that we hope the seniors would like.

We chit-chatted with the seniors and we sang some songs such as Red River Valley, You Raise Me Up, The Moon Represents My Heart, Friends, Auld Lang Syne and other old and classic songs that we hope the seniors like. Then we presented them the smalls gift bags.

We were touched by many things there. One example was: we were very impressed how well the senior home staff took care of the seniors. For COVID-19 safety reason, we were asked to fully sanitize our hands, wear gloves, pass the first COVID-19 questionnaires, pass the COVID-19 full test, sanitize all the gift bags, then we could go inside the senior home building. After we went into the senior home, we were asked not to touch anything inside; after we left, the senior home staff also took their time and sanitized everywhere. We were very happy to see it with our own eyes, and we were very happy for the seniors that being taken so good care of.

This event was organized by Wu-Tong; and it was supported by Vancouver Foundation; NSG Vancouver; Kiwassa Neighborhood House; and WS Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society.