01 Sep Free Adult Coach Bus Trips

The Wasaga Beach Public Library’s Seniors Cultural Connections program is now in full swing with bus trips happening monthly until November. The program, with support from the Government of Ontario’s Seniors Community Grant Program, helps provide older adults in Wasaga Beach with new cultural opportunities including bus trips to various GTA locations along with an upcoming slate of concerts in the new year.

Upcoming bus trips include the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on September 30, the Art Gallery of Ontario on October 24, and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) on November 16. The program kicked off in August with a trip to the McMichael Art Gallery where participants were treated to a watercolour painting workshop and a guided tour of the permanent collection consisting of over 6,500 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and more.

Feedback was positive all around with participants sharing sentiments like “I don’t have a car, so I enjoyed seeing other parts of Ontario”, and “It was time well spent for inspiration and socializing. It was a great treat which I otherwise would not have had”. One participant shared “I have always wanted to visit but I am physically disabled. Everyone was so helpful. Lovely, just lovely.”

The Art Gallery of Ontario will give participants a guided tour focusing on collection highlights from the museum’s collection that spans from 100 A.D. up to the present and exhibits creative expression in all forms, from music to film, graphic art to experiential media, and more. Visitors on the ROM trip will enjoy a guided tour called “Climate Change: History and Hope”. Admission will also include admission to the following special exhibits: “Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery” and “Being and Belonging”. The Warplane Heritage Museum trip is already sold out as of this writing.

Tickets go on sale at the beginning of each month and have been selling out quickly. Tickets are free and cover your return transportation from the RexPlex, entry fees and guided tours for each experience.

More of a music fan? The Seniors Cultural Connections program has you covered there as well with a series of indoor concerts in the works for the new year. Utilizing the larger capacity of the new Cortellucci Zancor Centre, over 100 older adults will be able to enjoy live music in their own backyard. A committee of seniors involved in the planning of the coach trips and concerts is also working to provide transportation for isolated adults to attend free of charge.