Marilyn Fischer and Jim Simning are the 2018 Seniors of the Year, as chosen by the Langley Seniors Resource Centre, an award which recognizes a man and a woman each year for making a “noticeable contribution to the local community.”
Fischer and Simning are a couple with a long history of volunteering.
Among other things, Fischer is an advocate for affordable and accessible housing for seniors on the Langley Seniors Community Action Table and Triple A Senior Housing, while Simning is one of the volunteer “Grandpas” at the weekly reading program for Grade 1’s and 2’s at Blacklock Elementary School, and is training with the Langley Heritage Society to learn about the rail history in Langley so that he can be a volunteer docent for the railway station tourist attraction.
Fischer is the person who nominated Simning.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do as much as I did without him,” she said.
“He has done his best to take up the slack at home and has done an excellent job of diminishing my guilt about not having time to do what I used to around the house.”
Simning said he was kind of hesitant when he learned he’d been nominated, but agreed to accept it because it would be nice to have a husband and wife win.
“We try to work as a team,” he said.
At their official introduction at LRSC, Fisher encouraged retired seniors to get involved as volunteers, by attending the Volunteer Training program offered at the Seniors Centre, contacting Volunteer Langley, or attending a Langley Seniors Community Action Table meeting.
“By sharing our time and talents through volunteering we have an enormous opportunity to make a difference in our own lives and in our communities,” she said.
“Mainly through our involvement as volunteers (since they moved from New Westminster to Aldergrove in 2005) we now feel that Langley is ‘home’, that we belong and we have made friends along the way. “
Daughters Beth and Kelly were with the couple at the announcement.
dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com
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