CARP comes to K-W
Posted Sep 29, 2010 04:01:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The newest chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons will be located in Waterloo Region. A capacity crowd of more than 200 people is expected for tonight’s official launch at the St. George Banquet Hall in Waterloo.
But if you think this is simply a gathering of senior citizens, think again.
“Members neither have to be retired nor do they have to be of a certain age,” points out CARP spokesperson John Thompson of Waterloo. “The demographic that the organization is looking at is really mid-40s and up.”
Thompson refers to this demographic as “zoomers” or “boomers with some zip.”
According to Thompson, there are about 3,500 such individuals living in the region, who were part of a CARP organization that never really caught hold about a decade ago.
CARP members gain access to benefits like discounts on insurance and travel thanks to the connection to about 350,000 members nationwide.
“The part that’s going to work really well locally is the community part,” Thompson notes. “We’ve got 3,500 members in Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich and we hope to draw them together with monthly meetings of topics of importance.”
While acknowledging that older adults in our region are well-served, Thompson believes CARP fills an important and interesting niche in the community. More information can be found at www.carp.ca.
Moses Znaimer, founder of ZoomerMedia Limited, will be the keynote speaker at tonight’s launch.
