The Mixed Singles Over Sixty social group was never intended to be a dating club, but president Gail Poston says relationships have blossomed – both romantic and otherwise – since the club began meeting two decades ago.
With a simple advertisement in the Peace Arch News, the club had a modest start with nine founding members. Membership has steadily grown and peaked at 100 members.
The group gets together for monthly meetings and hosts weekly activities throughout the Lower Mainland.
Although the club is only for singles, there is one caveat.
“The way it works is the fact that if two people are members and meet each other then decide to marry, they can still stay in the club. You can’t marry someone outside the club and stay,” said Poston.
However, none of the current members are married to each other, Poston added.
“But we have several couples that live together. A lot of couples are partnered up. That’s both good and bad.
“The good is that it’s nice that people find love later in life. The bad news is that there are not enough men. It’s discouraging for these ladies that are not partnered up.”
The club is currently looking for more men to participate – they target a ratio of 60/40.
“We should never let it get more imbalanced than that, but it’s hard.”
Poston said many members seek out the group after losing a long-term spouse, which is one of the reasons that led Poston to join, she said.
“For me, I was married for 48 years. My husband died suddenly. Two years later is when I joined the club,” she said.
“You want to go out dancing, you want to do things. You would like to have a man. I didn’t need a boyfriend. It wasn’t my intention, anyway, but I did get partnered up.”
The club celebrated its 20th anniversary recently with a gala potluck dinner.
Weekly activities hosted by the club include lunch dates, bowling, darts, dinners, happy hour, dancing, movie nights, lectures, opera, picnics, parties and more.
For more information about the club, call Norval at 604-542-9923 or Eva at 604-560-5087.