SCOA 35 Years: What Positive Aging Could Look Like

Wilma didn't need a policy paper to convince her that how you age matters. She'd watched it up close. Her mother, both grandmothers, her grandfather — people who stayed active, volunteered in their communities, and kept showing up for life well into their 80s and 90s. Their vitality wasn't accidental. It shaped everything about the quality of their later years. When she found SCOA, she found people who believed the same thing.

What drew her deeper into the organization wasn't a single turning point. It was cumulative — the gradual arrival of like-minded people bringing new ideas, new skills, and fresh energy. The early team shared her values around healthy living and community involvement, but growth required new leadership and what she plainly calls "new blood." Many of them were at or approaching retirement themselves, starting to think seriously about their own futures and their parents'. That personal stake, she thinks, was quietly motivating.

What she carries from those years is a genuine appreciation for the organizations that showed up when SCOA was still finding its footing. Seniors' groups, local businesses, the library, churches, the police department, the Saskatoon Health Authority, the Saskatoon Housing Authority — these weren't just names on a partnership list. They were the community infrastructure that helped a fragile new organization take its first steps. She hasn't forgotten that.

Ask Wilma what she wants for SCOA's next 35 years, and her answer is four words: Positive Aging for All.

Not just for people with resources or family nearby. Not just for those in good health. For everyone. It's the goal she started with, watching her grandmother live fully into old age — and it's still the one worth chasing.

Wilma Mollard is a founding member of the Saskatoon Council on Aging.