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<\/p>\nDelta Gymnastics says the future of a free fitness program it offers to seniors is uncertain after a provincial funding cut.<\/p>\n
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The non-profit society\u2019s Seniors Can Move program provided over 300 free spots to people between the ages of 65 and 97 last year.<\/p>\n
Program coordinator Richard Woo said he worked with a geriatric nurse to develop Seniors Can Move, which is focused on fall prevention and fall recovery, major issues older adults experience.<\/p>\n
Classes officially launched in 2018, Woo said, with strong feedback from participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stepped on a ping pong ball and I didn\u2019t fall this time or I went on vacation because I felt confident doing so,\u201d Woo told Global News in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s the little things like that that tell us that were giving seniors confidence to go out and do things that they might not have been able to do or felt confident doing before.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When the federal start-up grant funding ran out, the provincial government stepped in to back the program in 2019.<\/p>\n
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Delta Gymnastics said Seniors Can Move was receiving a substantial annual grant of between $80,000 to $100,000, before funding was denied for the upcoming year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf seniors are falling, that\u2019s a huge cost on society,\u201d said Seniors Can Move participant Pat Rogers. \u201cDoing this is kind of helping people be more stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda Scabar, who survived a stroke in 2016, said the one-hour, once-a-week class has been life-changing for her mobility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used my walker on this floor for almost a year, then I graduated to the cane,\u201d Scabar said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for this (Seniors Can Move), I wouldn\u2019t be as good as I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delta Gymnastics said many of the participants live on fixed or limited incomes and may not be able to continue if the non-profit started charging for the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fear is that seniors won\u2019t be able to afford it,\u201d said Delta Gymnastics Society executive director Jenn Watts. \u201cThen they\u2019ll be losing out on a program that has been so crucial to their overall health and wellbeing and yeah, we really don\u2019t want the program to fold.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Global News requested an interview with B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne for an explanation on why funding was cut for a program Delta Gymnastics said has become a vital community resource.<\/p>\n
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Osborne\u2019s ministry did not respond to the interview request and instead sent a statement saying it appreciates and values the work provided by Delta Gymnastics.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment is facing a challenging fiscal climate and it is not possible to provide funding to all the many worthy organizations seeking support from the Province,\u201d the emailed statement read.<\/p>\n
The health ministry added that the province, through its partnership with United Way BC,<\/p>\n
funds over 170 non-profit agencies to provide a range of community-based seniors\u2019 services that help older adults remain physically active, socially connected, resilient and as independent as possible.<\/p>\n
Delta Gymnastics has been working to try and obtain a new grant to help seniors continue to participate for free, but said it\u2019s been hard to source new funding on short notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as we would love to keep running the program for free, it\u2019s not viable for us as a non-profit without a grant or sponsor,\u201d said Watts.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delta Gymnastics says the future of a free fitness program it offers to seniors is uncertain after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84,714,261409],"class_list":["post-723932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-politics","tag-seniors-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}