Welcome

Welcome to the Hanover Area Probus Club!

We invite you to explore our new website!

We are a vibrant community of retired people who come together to enjoy enriching activities, engaging social events, and lifelong learning opportunities. Our club is dedicated to fostering fellowship, fun, and personal growth among our members.

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Are you interested in participating in group activities and events, hearing interesting guest speakers, or simply making new friends? There’s something for everyone at the Hanover Area Probus Club.

We encourage you to consider becoming a member. Click BECOME A MEMBER now to find out how and start enjoying what our club has to offer.

We look forward to welcoming you in person!

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Mark Your Calendar

Activity Showcase Event

There will be no speaker at our September 9 Meeting

Based on highly positive feedback, we are kicking off this season with an Activity Showcase where you can learn about all of the Activities that will be going on this year and enter your name for fabulous prizes.

The Activity Showcase will be on Tuesday September 9th at the Hanover Legion starting at 10 am. As well as the Activity Showcase we will be processing membership renewals and there will be scrumptious treats and an area for socializing. Our normal meetings will remain on the second Wednesday of the month, starting in October, with an exciting list of guest speakers for the season.

A Message from Your New President

As your new President, I’d like to welcome you to the ‘25/26 Probus season. Over the last two years as a member of the Club, I have gotten to know a bit about a number you in discussions at activities, and social time at our meetings. And what I have come to learn is we have a lot of fascinating people in our club. As we go through this season I am hoping to showcase our members with their histories and interests as a way to deepen our connections to each other. So in my first installment in our Newsletter, I’ll introduce myself.

I was born and raised, for the most part in Etobicoke, though I spent my summers and most weekends at the family cottage (and later retirement residence) five minutes south of Dorset. There I spent my summers with friends and family hiking, swimming, playing bridge and scrabble. Later, as we moved into the building phase of the aforementioned retirement residence, I learned another vital skill, cooking – as my mother would always seem to find another job to do as dinner time approached. Winter-time in Dorset was filled with hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and in the absence of any television, a lot of reading, particularly fantasy and science fiction. My grandparents had their summer cottage on the adjoining lot and I spent many hours with my grandmother who was an avid genealogist working through the archive of information she had collected about our family’s history in Canada since before the American Revolution.

Near the end of the ten-year build project, it was time for me to head off to University of Waterloo where I studied Chemical Engineering at met my future wife Janice during a work-term at Chalk River. I pursued a Master’s after completing my undergraduate and Janice and I were married in December of 1995. We had two sons, Quinn in 1999 and Patrick in 2001, and shortly after Patrick’s birth moved to our house in Georgetown.

Between Quinn and Patrick’s birth, I left on what I refer to as my eight year sabbatical from Hatch and worked for Lakeside Process Controls where Janice spent her entire career. It was during this timeframe that my family discovered Pokémon trading cards and the game that went with it and this became our family obsession (or at least Quinn and mine) for a number of years. As an aside, this year, my two sons started a business together buying, grading and selling trading cards with the goal of raising sufficient capital to open a brick-and-mortar gaming store where they can create and support players in a facility designed to foster the community that a gaming store can create.

In 2008 I returned to Hatch, which had grown significantly during my absence, to head up the process team supporting our technology practice. By 2017, Janice had retired from Lakeside and I had moved to Hatch’s Advisory group where I started our Catastrophic Risk auditing and Serious Incident Investigation practice. I had planned to fully retire by 2021, but with the pandemic, I learned that remote work was a real possibility. So we began our search for a community to retire in, where I could continue to work on a part-time basis, and ease into retirement over a longer timeframe. We had purchased a trailer at Silent Valley, near Ayton in 2018, so we wanted to be close to it, but not too much further away from my parents in Dorset. We found a house in Walkerton that fit our needs and budget and began substantial renovations in the fall of 2020, moving in June 2021.

In 2023, Janice joined HAPC and participated in the Dining, Knitting and Wine-Tasting. It wasn’t long before she joined the management committee and recruited me to join as well. For the summer of 2023, I did a trial on full retirement by taking a 120-day leave of absence and during this time I decided to try to get in shape to do a single short triathlon. Little did I know that it would turn out to be a new passion for me. I started being able to barely swim a few lengths of the pool, and I hadn’t cycled since university or run since Grade 9 gym. But over time my fitness level came up, and I began to enjoy first the swimming, then the biking. I think running must be an acquired taste, but I do prefer it to golf! This year I have two triathlons (Owen Sound and the TriMuskokan) complete, and am hoping to complete my first longer distance swim-bike at the Niagara Barrelman in September.

So now having read my long personnel diatribe, noting that Janice is the succinct one in the family. I am wondering if you noticed the number of lifetime interests I have had that fit with the fantastic activities we offer at the club (noting that I do plan to start an genealogy group this year as well). I am hoping to see many of you out to our first meeting on Tuesday September 9^th for our Activity Showcase. New and returning members can learn more about the activities, meet the coordinators, hear interesting and funny stories from years gone by, enter draws for fabulous prizes and catch up with your fellow Probus members as we continue to build our Probus Community in the 2025/26 Season.

News

Membership Renewals for 2025-26

In mid-August, an email was sent out to all 2024-25 members who had not yet renewed. In case you missed it, we will be accepting Membership Renewals for the 2025-26 year (September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026) at the September meeting.

Please download the renewal form from the website (here) and fill it out before the meeting. There will be a limited number of renewal forms at the meeting. Payment this year can be made in cash, by cheque or by e-transfer. Both the form and the payment must be submitted for your renewal to be complete. If you are not going to be at the Sept meeting and wish to renew your membership, please go to the website and follow the instructions there for processing your renewal.

Ways to Stay Up to Date with Probus Canada

Podcast - Go to https://probuscanada.ca, scroll down to the footer, and click on the green Spotify icon.

Facebook - News from Probus clubs in Canada: https://www.facebook.com/probuscanada/

YouTube - two new videos that were developed this year: https://www.youtube.com/@PROBUS-Canada

Newsletter - latest issues of the PROBUS Canada Connections at: https://www.probuscanada.ca/news.

Probus Global is a network of Probians from all over the world who meet quarterly on ZOOM. If interested, you can visit https://probusglobal.org/ and follow the route to become a member at NO cost as long as you are a Probus member.

September Probus Activity Updates

Dinner Club

This year we extended dinners into July and August to plan menus around outdoor barbecuing with ten members attending each dinner.

Karen and Bob Farrow hosted July dinner based on Canada Day Celebrations.

Menu: Stuffed to the Gills, a potato, beet and mustard potato salad popular in Newfoundland; The Great Canadian Salad featuring ingredients that represent each province and Vancouver Island Salad using spinach, raspberries, red onion red pepper and Brie Cheese all produced on the Island but available in Ontario; Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Strawberry Shortcake. A perfect evening to dine outdoors with lots of conversation and laughter in the air.

Janice and Terry Koehler hosted an International meal in August at Silent Valley Park based around Terry’s famous Smoked Ribs and Veggie Quesadillas (both so delicious). Menu also included Middle Eastern Potato Salad with cumin spice, Caprese Skewers of tomato, basil and bocconcini from Italy, Hummus originated in Syria, with Vegetables and Pita and Berry Cheese Cake pie (Janice’s Gramma’s recipe). Everyone enjoyed making an eating these foods from around the world! It was a beautiful evening and Janice toured everyone on their golf cart along the many trails throughout the beautiful park grounds.

Coordinator - Karen Farrow

Geneaology Club (New Activity)

There was a lot of interest in starting up a Genealogy Club based on discussion started at the AGM in June. I will work out the full details; plan to have a monthly meeting at a club members’ homes to share successes and frustrations in trying to chase down ancestors. Janice and I have been fairly avidly working on our family trees for a number of years, and I plan on ramping up work on mine as I move into full retirement. We are open to any level of experience. If we get more than ~ 10 people we can create a "pod" system where we have multiple pods of different composition meetings on a monthly basis (similar to how the dinner club works). I will provide information for the Activity Showcase and the probus web page.

Coordinators-Terry and Janice Koehler

Golf

We have 65 golfers listed and have 20 - 24 active players. Members will continue to enjoy the golf season as long as the weather allows.

Coordinator- Uli Kaempfe

Theatre Mtg

The fall 2025 theatre schedule includes: a local history of CKNX radio a world premiere country musical; a witty and touching comedy misadventure for modern lovers, a true humorous and profound story of a World War 11 veteran, and a season hit production of an Agatha Christie thrilling courtroom drama. All performances start at 2pm. No ticket refunds. Lunch reservations are arranged at local restaurants for each show.

“The Doc Cruikshank Story” Blyth Festival Theatre, Wed Sep 17
“The Wonder Of It All” Orangeville Theatre, Wed Oct 22-Price $46.00
“Flight Risk” Hildebrand Schoolhouse Theatre St. Jacobs Wed Nov 5-Price $52.00
“Witness for the Prosecution” Hamilton Theatre Cambridge Nov 13-Price $52.00
Payments For Oct and Nov shows above by e-transfer to tres@hapc.ca OR drop off cash or cheque at the Theatre Activity Table at Sept 9 meeting
School of Rock”-Hanover Civic Theatre-Dec 6 or 7^th-members can sign up in October

Coordinators - Peter Dalton & Tracey Neuman

Travel Mtg

2025 Trips

Members thoroughly enjoyed two one-day bus trips to Toronto in August to see Cirque Du Soleil “oVo” and “The Lion King Musical”. Short trips options provided to members include:

Fall Colours in the Eastern Townships of Quebec (5 days) Sept 26-30

www.greatcanadianholidays.com/Tour/Fall-Colours-in-the-Eastern-Townships-MDay

Agawa Canyon and Northern Ontario (4 days) Departure dates-Sept 19, 26, 29 Oct 3
Agawa Canyon with Manitoulin (5 days)-Departure Dates-Sept 21, 24, Oct 1, Oct 6

www.greatcanadianholidays.com/Tours/Search/agawa%20canyon

Contact Carol Brownell at Direct Travel Hanover 519-364-3270 to book.

2026 Trips Options

Ontario Waterways Cruises Inc. (5 days) May thru October 2026-(total of 30 cruises)

Rideau Canal and Trent Severn Waterways Cruises from Big Chute to Ottawa- “Kawartha Voyageur” Ship capacity 45 passengers (23 cabins) and crew of 13. Some members have already booked a cruise. These cruises are popular with seniors so book early.

Call 1-800-561-5767 to book a 2026 cruise. www.ontariowaterwaycruises.com/cruises/rideau

Costa Rica-“World of Nature” Feb 13-25, 2026 (13 days) - This is a small group tour with 17 members booked to experience various adventures including Tortuguero, Tirimvina Rainforest Centre, River Safari, Forest Reserve Guided Walk, Arenal Volcano, Zip Lining or Volcano Lava Field Hike, Jungle Crocodile Safari & Bird Watching.

https://gateway.gocollette.com/link/1335460

Travel Committee: Dianne Mather, Peter Dalton, Joan Roseborough, Margaret Elliott-Niesen

Wine Taste

The Wine Tasting Committee would like to thank Micki Bruschke for his great ideas and work during his time on the committee. We wish him well on his other endeavours. We would also like to announce Bill Roseborough's return to the committee and look forward to working with him again.

The group enjoyed a perfect summer day tasting rosé and enjoying snacks at Jim and Tina Shier's beautiful country property. Rodger gave us a lot of information regarding the wines and Helen told us all about the snacks she had created. A tasting is also planned for late October so stay tuned.

The Wine Tasting Committee is working with the Walkerton Best Western on the upcoming New Year's Eve Wine and Food Pairing. The theme for this year is Italy. The New Year will be rung in at 6:00pm our time ---- midnight in Italy! We're looking forward to some “fantastico” Italian food and wine.

Wine Committee: Frances Agnew, Dan Hobler, Helen Peppler, Bill Roseborough

Local and Area Events

Grey Roots Museum and Archives - We Lend a Hand: The Forgotten Story of the Ontario Farmerettes Tuesday, Oct 21

Discover the untold story of 40,000 teenage girls who kept Canada’s farms running during wartime. This moving 49-minute documentary features rare footage, re-enactments, and firsthand accounts from Farmerettes. Includes a post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers.

https://greyroots.com/exhibit-event-program/we-lend-hand-forgotten-story-ontario-farmerettes