Where do we begin.
At the start is where most folks begin, but that’s a long time ago.
Fifty years, in fact. That’s how long Kerby Centre has served seniors in our community. Five decades; Kerby Centre is old enough now that if it was a person, it would be using its own services!
But for being around for so long, many people consider the Kerby Centre to be a best kept secret. Those in the know will talk your ear off about everything we offer, everything we do and everything we’re capable of when it comes to helping the folks around us.
We have a legacy attached to the name of this building: Kerby Centre. But our new overarching organization — Unison, Generations 50+ — is what we call the whole shebang. In the same way Marriott might operate a bunch of different hotels, Unison now operates several centres in southern Alberta: Veiner and Strathcona Centres in Medicine Hat, and of course, the Kerby Centre.
The Kerby Centre building is keeping its name, of course, because of the legacy attached. But does that mean Kerby Centre is just a building? Is Kerby just a collection of bricks and beams and windows?
I don’t think it is.
It’s harder to pin down than that. It’s like trying to read writing through a fogged-up mirror.
But it’s a question I’ve committed to answering over the next year: “what is Kerby Centre?”
To that end, we’re going to answer this question the best way I know how, which is by doing a deep dive and telling the stories of all the different parts that come together to make up Kerby Centre.
Once a week, every week, for an entire year. That’s going to be 50 stories of the people, places, history and events of Kerby Centre — one for every year we’ve been around.
By the end of it, we’ll have the chance to really figure out what makes Kerby Centre such a magical place.
They might be written pieces like this; they might be interviews or podcasts with the folks important to this place; you might even see a little video or two.
But no matter what form it takes, we’re committed to telling the True Story of Kerby Centre, one week at a time for our incredible 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Won’t you come along with us?
And that, my friends, is where we’re going to start.