Newsletters

February 2026

Our February Speaker is Barrie Shepley

Barrie was Canada’s National Triathlon Team coach in 1991, and for several years following. His company Personal Best was formed in 1991 and since then, Barrie has coached hundreds of people to national championship titles, Pan American Games medals, World Championship medals as well as the successful completion of the Hawaii Ironman and the Boston Marathon. Barrie was selected to go to the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Triathlon made its debut as a full medal sport. Canada won the gold medal in the men's event, a performance no one will ever forget.

Furthermore, Barrie has been the voice of the International Triathlon Union, and announced races all over the world, including multiple Olympic games. As a Board member for Triathlon, co-founder of Ontario Triathlon, and former chair for the Coaches Association of Ontario, there are few people in our nation that have contributed as much to the sport as Barrie. Barrie was also the founder of the Kids of Steel triathlon program, a program that gave many of our nation's top triathletes a start in the sport, including Olympic gold medal winner Simon Whitfield.

Barrie will speak to us about the Olympic experience from the coach and commentator perspective and about how this impacted his world view.

Our January Speaker was Graham Ghent from BigDoor

“Caring for people where they’re at, in a space where they can move forward.” The team at BigDoor hopes this building in Walkerton can be a source of care, hope, support and community for anyone who enters the “big door”. Graham Ghent talked about some of the many services they offer.

What is the BigDoor?

2 Durham East, Walkerton
Registered charity in Walkerton to support our community
Owned by Brockton Christian Ministries (operates BCC and the BigDoor)
Offering non-religious essential services to our community
Hosting Christian faith-based activities for Brockton Community Church and those interested

What does the BigDoor do in the Community?

Comfort Meals - ”Offering a warm meal and warm conversation to anyone in need.”
Every Tuesday between 12-1
Providing: A networking location for other local supports and services; living essentials (clothes, blankets, toiletries and hygiene, basic medical care, showers, haircuts); and a nutritious meal and good company!

What is the “326cafe”?

Providing a safe and comfortable space for high school students to hangout after school
Tues-Thurs from 3 to 6pm
Protected Wi-Fi access, computers and printing; affordable snacks and drinks; meals-to-go for younger siblings; and access to care

General Support to Families

Over the years we have become a trusted help for certain households who need some care. We can provide regular customized boxes of food, supplies and even gifts for Christmas and birthdays. These are households who are experiencing degrees of crisis, with school-aged children.

A Message from Your President

As discussed, one of the primary tools for helping the Management Committee understand the needs of the Club was the Member Survey conducted over the fall of 2025. I am pleased to provide an update on the outcome of that survey in this month’s President’s Update.

We received 98 completed surveys, representing 35% of the club membership. In general, surveys of clubs such as ours would expect a good response to be more than one-quarter of the membership, so I would classify the participation rate as high. About one-quarter of the responses included detailed comments and suggestions, further indicating a high engagement of our membership in bringing forth more detailed information for us to consider. The survey was broken into four main categories of input, the general meeting, guest speakers, activities, and general club communication. There is a lot of detail that will take some time to fully digest, but I wanted to provide the high-level commentary for each of these sections in the newsletter.

One of the metrics for understanding whether our general meetings are working well is participation. In general, we have seen an increase in the number of folks showing up to the meeting as is evidenced by needing to increase our seating expectation to around 120 seats per meeting.
The survey tells us that by-in-large the membership finds the general meeting good. If anything, there is a desire that the meeting be a little bit shorter, but people are happy with the allocation of time in the meeting between announcements, social time, and the guest speaker timing.
Also, the membership is happy with having the Activity Showcase and Christmas Luncheon in place of normal meetings for our September and December meetings.
One of the interesting pieces of feedback in this section was around We-Share, with members indicating that putting the money towards additional honorariums for speakers was something to be considered along with it’s traditional use in support of the IT and Audio/Visual assets of the Club. There were substantial comments that we should consider donating proceeds from We-Share, however this is not something we can do based on restrictions from Probus Canada.
For the speakers, it was clear from the comments that people appreciate the Speaker Program that is a foundation of our Club. Our members value the quality and variety of our Guest Speakers with people supportive of a variety of topics. Reviewing our recent Speaker topics and preferences indicated in the survey, it would seem that an increase in talks focused on local history, travel and business would be well received, along with an increase in topics associated with senior living, healthy aging and a slight decrease in talks from local service organizations. There were a few comments that, particularly with respect to service groups, there was a bias towards Hanover-based organizations. It is important to realize that almost 60% of our memberships are from Hanover, so this bias is understandable, but it is certainly something to consider going forward. One other key take-away was that almost twice as many people were supportive of getting remote speakers to talk to our group as a means of broadening the topics we could address and potentially to address the longstanding issue of dealing with weather-related cancellations during the winter months for speakers having to travel to the meeting.
In the activity section of the survey, we find that almost 75% of our members are primarily involved in Probus to join activities and 50% of us have tried a new activity in the last two years. People enjoy the wide variety of activities and there were comments that praised our activity co-ordinators for their efforts in making these happen. In general people felt the activities were well run and well communicated. There were some comments received that indicated that particularly new members may not join activities because they do not know the people involved and there were some requests for additional mixer activities to occur. This is something that we will consider as we look at our meeting program for the remainer of this Probus session and into the next.
From the communication perspective almost 75% of folks read all the newsletters and 80% find the information contained within useful.
People also indicated that the new website is easy to navigate and is a useful source of information.
In general people were happy with membership sign-up and renewals, but there were some comments to further automate the renewal process, and these are things we will investigate in the future.
Finally, 96% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that they got good value out of being a member of this club.

As mentioned earlier, it will take some time for all the members of the Management Committee to fully digest the information from the survey and bring forward recommendations to use this data to improve our Club. I would certainly like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out the survey and remind everyone to reach out to your Management Committee either in person or through the Suggestion Box with your continued feedback.

Terry Koehler

News

Ways to Stay Up to Date with Probus Canada

Podcast - Go to the Probus Canada website, scroll down to the footer, and click on the green Spotify icon.

Facebook - News from Probus clubs in Canada.

YouTube - two new videos that were developed this year.

Newsletter - latest issues of the PROBUS Canada Connections.

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

February Probus Activity Updates

Recently the activity information and activity events have been reviewed and updated by the activity coordinators. Members are invited and encouraged to visit Hanover Area Probus Club website at www.hapc.ca/activitieslist. It’s as easy as clicking on the “blue more info” link or click on any activity or event on the monthly calendars. If you need assistance or have any questions contact Dianne Mather, Activity Group Chair at act@hapc.ca

Eat for Health

Unfortunately the January 20^th healthy breakfast meeting for the Eating for the group was postponed due to inclement weather. We'll meet on Tuesday February 17th at 9:00 am at Hope Church in Hanover for our healthy breakfast potluck.

Click here to see all the pictures from Eat for Your Health events.

Coordinators - Kathy Greensides and Robin Hill

Potluck

Fourteen ladies braved the stormy weather to attend our Potluck on Monday January 19th, and a delicious lunch was enjoyed by all. Our next Potluck will be on Monday, March 23rd, at Hope Community Church. The theme will be “Springtime Foods”. Let’s hope for a springtime day.

Click here to see all the potluck pictures.

Coordinator - Marybelle Schumacher

Snowshoeing Group

On January 8^th there were eight participants in our snowshoeing adventure at Allen Park Conservation Area near Hanover. Several planned outings had to be cancelled this month due to inclement weather conditions. There are usually opportunities for a shorter options along the various route planned. We meet in designated parking areas and begin snowshoeing at 10 am.

Click here to see all snowshoeing pictures

Coordinator - Vernon Freer

Theatre

Fifty members met at Cravings Restaurant in Hanover on Wednesday January 21^st for a joint meeting of the Theatre and Travel groups. Peter was pleased to announce that Susan Keir has volunteered to be on the Travel Committee. Thank you very much Susan and welcome to the team!

Peter Dalton, Theatre Committee Chair, circulated and presented shows suggestions and information for the 2026 season. The show selection was determined by the members by a show of hands at the meeting. Peter e-mailed to the members all selected show information and details. Sign-up sheets for various shows will be available at Wednesday February 11^th monthly Probus meeting. He will be organizing group outings-approximately one per month April through December. The selected shows will all be at theatres within 1.5 hours driving time of Hanover and include a mix of musicals, comedies, drama and history.

Margaret Post announced several upcoming Hanover Community Players (HCP) shows at The Hanover Civic Theatre:

Saturday February 28^th ( 6:30-10:00pm) HCP presents “Winterlude” A night of comedy skits and music by local talented musicians headlined by “Ontario’s #1 Party Band Boiler Beach” and including “Smoke & Honey”, “Blake Wilson” and “He Said, She Said”. Featuring “Neustadt Spring Brewery” open at 6:30 before the show and during intermission. Tickets $35.00 on line at www.hanovercommunityplayers.ca or call box office 519-506-6902.

April 24, 25, 26, 30, May 1, 2 and 3^rd -HCP presents “Unnecessary Farce”, an award-winning stage comedy by Paul Slade Smith that combines all the elements of classic farce with two cops, three crooks and eight doors. Sign-up sheets will be available for the Saturday May 2^nd 2:00 pm matinee show at the February 11^th monthly Probus meeting. Tickets also available on line at www.hanovercommunityplayers.ca

May 14-17 (Thurs thru Sun)-HCP is hosting this year’s “Western Ontario Drama League (WODL) Festival” at the Hanover Civic Theatre. A professional adjudicator selects the theatre productions that will appear in the Festival. The top three of Ontario’s finest community amateur theatre groups will compete by showcasing their performances at The Hanover Civic Theatre form May 14 thru May 17^th.

For further details and tickets https://hanovercommunityplayers.ca/WODL2026

Theatre Committee: Peter Dalton, Jill Dalton, Tracey Neuman and Susan Keir

Travel

My name is Margaret Elliott-Niesen and I am co-chairing with Joan Roseborough for the Travel group. Dianne Mather, past chair, will continue as a travel committee member. The travel and theatre group members met at Cravings Restaurant in Hanover on Wednesday January 21^st.

Special Note: Scotland “Land of Lore & Legend” trip September 20-30, 2026 booking deadline has been extended to February 21, 2026. This trip is a small group trip open to all Probus members with currently 9 members booked. Contact Carol Brownell at Direct Travel Hanover 519-364-3270 to book this trip. For trip itinerary and details the link is https://groups.gocollette.com/en-US/link/1358798

Joan Roseborough met with Carol Brownell and presented some suggestions and various trip options for extended 2027 trips. An email with all these trip details will be sent to travel members for their information and review and will be voted on at the next travel meeting scheduled for Thursday April 2, 2026.

Connie Reay shared her experiences in Cambodia while she was serving in the Canadian military. It was an informative and entertaining presentation. She also brought souvenirs: statutes, t-shirts and silk cloth. Thank you Connie.

Monica O'Hagan shared her tour of Africa with Collette. She was very pleased with her service from Collette. She enjoyed her time on the safari, seeing lots of animals as well as, the scenery. Thanks Monica.

Next travel meeting is Thursday April 2.

Here is the link to view all of the pictures from the Travel group

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

Wine Tasting

Even with all the snow, the New Year's Eve dinner and wine pairing went on as scheduled. It was a great evening with good food, excellent wine and even better company. Thank you to all who attended and made the evening memorable.

Several wine pairings are planned for this year. The first wine pairing of the year, “Wines of Croatia” will be held Thursday March 26^th at the Hanover Legion at 1:00pm. Please note that these future dates are pending. The next wine pairing, “Backyard Barbecue” will be the held the week of June 8th. We are working on bringing a representative of one of the Niagara area wineries up with some wine for a tasting and talk the week of September 14th. The week of November 1st will be another wine pairing. Our hope is to taste some wines from British Columbia.

With the 2026 NYE dinner and wine pairing being very successful, we'll be looking into planning a 2027 NYE dinner and wine pairing.

Click here to see pictures from all Wine Tasting events

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

Local and Area Events

Visit their website for full details and schedules.

Visit their website for full details or contact your local branch.

Visit their website for all upcoming Library programs and events.

Town of Hanover Parks, Recreation & Culture Community Guide (Fall 2025/Winter 2026):

Of special note, see page 22 and 23 for the Senior Active Living Centre (SALC) Programs, funded by the Ontario Government through a Senior Active Living Centre Grant.

Hanover Recreation and Culture events and programs webpage