Seniors club founder gets volunteer of the year nod

[attach]1618[/attach]It was 1988 when Dick Colyer founded the Edithvale Seniors Club. Twenty-two years later, he and the club are still going strong.

The 90-year-old was recently recognized by Toronto Parks and Recreation as North York’s Volunteer of the Year.

Shortly after the seniors group’s founding at the Edithvale Community Centre, Colyer received a grant that allowed him to buy snooker tables and a place for his members to play card games.

With the group’s new facilities, Colyer organized clubs for both snooker and euchre.

“I didn’t take to bridge because it’s a serious game and you can’t muck around,” he said.

Membership in the euchre club peaked at 100 but now attracts 60 regular players.

“It’s a very dedicated group of seniors that really look out for each other,” said Betty Fallis-Trow, the community centre’s recreation coordinator.

“It’s a neighbourhood type of group.”

Fallis-Trow, who nominated Colyer for his award, said that he is a humble and remarkable man who puts a lot of time into the clubs.

“He’s a very giving individual in the community that cares and gets the stuff done,” she said.

Colyer received his award during a ceremony at the Toronto Botanical Garden and Fallis-Throw said she was concerned that they’d have to rent a banquet hall if they had to accommodate all of his relatives.

Colyer and his wife of 69 years, have eight children and many grand and great-grandchildren. He said a family photo taken five years ago had 54 people in it.

Due to the construction of a new community centre for the area, Colyer and his clubs are going on a forced break as the old building is being torn down before the new one will be opened.

Colyer said he will miss the clubs until the community re-opens at the end of the summer.

“When we get into our new place, the tables will be there and it’ll be the same club,” he said.