BY KAREN BLISS
From Elvis impersonators to Canadian Armed Forces veterans, Denice Thompson booked unique programming for the White Rock/Surrey Chapter of CARP during her tenure as events director.
While the group engaged in advocacy centred on heart health, dementia, healthy eating and even cannabis, she also put together, for example, a speaking engagement featuring Helen Burham, a former addict who co-founded Avalon Recovery Society; author Margaret de Vries, the sister of one of serial killer Robert Pickton’s victims; and transgender rights advocate Velvet Steele.
“When we put these ladies together, we thought, ‘This is kind of a downer of an event,’ so we had a fashion show and door prizes to make it a fun thing as well,” Thompson, 77, tells CARP. “So, that’s the kind of thing that I try to do to make it a little bit different.”
One day when Thompson was at a local farmers market with then-chapter president Ramona Kaptyn, handing out flyers to promote the triple bill, a lady they spoke to told her that her grandson was transitioning so she appreciated such an event aimed at seniors.
The Chapter also started a series called My Life. “I thought I’d like to bring some local celebrities to come and speak to our group in White Rock because you don’t often meet these people you see on TV,” she says.
The bookings ranged from Global Television newscaster Chris Gailus to Bramwell Tovey, the late director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Graham Kerr, a.k.a. The Galloping Gourmet. “It was those things that were a little bit of a different spin,” Thompson says.
“What I wanted to do is try and get rid of the stereotype that people have of seniors, because we’re not like our parents,” says Thompson. “Once Ramona took over, we started doing events that would bring a different focus.
“We’ve had this one Elvis impersonator [Steve Elliott] come quite a few times. He dresses up in his army uniform and sings. Last year, we had a fellow [Randi Scott] who was in Afghanistan and was responsible for rebuilding some of the prisons. This year, we had a young man [Dr. Matthew Kane] who was in military intelligence in the Middle East and Somalia speak about PTSD and the difficulties veterans have when they come home.”
Thompson, who was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, completed high school in 1966 and moved to Vancouver a year later to follow her boyfriend at the time. She answered a newspaper ad for a job as clerk stenographer for the Department of External Affairs and relocated to Washington, D.C., where she worked at the embassy for a couple of years. “The boyfriend faded away,” she says.
She was then hired as chief secretary for the International Monetary Fund, “a fabulous job because back then, what the IMF did was lend money to developing countries, and when a country is asking for money a group of economists go down to this particular country and they talk about their financial stability, so back in the day they used to take a secretary with them — which was me.”
Working in the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, specifically the North American division, enabled her not just to go to Ottawa but to Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and all of Central America, except Belize. “It was a great experience,” Thompson says. “Here’s this kid from the Prairies and nobody in my division at the IMF had ever heard of Saskatchewan.”
After her time with the IMF, she returned to Canada “because of some family issues” and worked in Regina at the hydro utility Saskatchewan Power Corporation for 10 years, starting as a clerk steno, then became a recruitment officer, then superintendent of administrative services.
In 1991, she moved to B.C. and worked for Citizens Bank of Canada for eight years, as executive assistant to the CEO. “Then, remember that boyfriend? He came back into the picture. My husband had died a couple of years earlier, so we got together again. Unfortunately, he had cancer. We were together for two years and he passed away in Florida.”
Thompson again returned to Canada and joined the Vancouver Police Department, as administrative support in the robbery/assault/arson division. Her duties included notetaking (she is adept at shorthand) during the interviews of suspects or witnesses, and preparation and distribution of “Wanted” posters. She stayed for seven years, finally retiring from the workforce when she moved further away to White Rock.
“One of the fellows in my condo joined CARP and he was telling me that I should join, but (at that time) I was still working and in my 50s. I just didn’t have the time to devote to it, so after I retired, I said, ‘Okay, I’m ready now, what can I do?’
“At the start of my journey with CARP, I assisted with the events duties and also membership issues. At that time, I didn’t really have a specific title – we had a board chair and an events director [Kaptyn] and we all kind of pitched in and helped with whatever,” she says.
“Later on I became director of events when the first chair of our chapter retired and Ramona took over. That’s when I became more involved. Our board executive became quite small through attrition, and for the last few years Ramona and I split the duties and did what had to be done. I became events and membership director, which I still am.”
Thompson has now been there for 14 years but is stepping away from “total involvement” at the end of the year “since we now have a larger board,” but she will still be active in some capacity.
“I told them I’d still help them out a little bit,” Thompson says. “I would do the Campaign Monitor stuff (an email marketing tool) because they don’t have anyone trained yet to do that to send out the e-newsletters. They told me they’re not gonna let me retire so we’ll see how that goes.”
What will she do now?
Twice married with a grown son, Chris; daughter-in-law Anna, and eight-year-old granddaughter, Cristina, Thompson goes to the gym three times a week (she started at age 73). “I’ve always done some kind of exercise. There’s been Zumba, yoga, Pilates but when COVID hit, a lot of those things went online, but I do go to the gym three days a week. I have gotten a lot stronger in the past four years.”
She also travels every year or every other year with her son, now 45. Their first trip together was in 2008. “We flew to Dubai first, stayed there, then we went to Egypt. We took a trip down the Nile and then we went to Tanzania and went on a safari, then we went over to Zanzibar.” They’ve since been to India, Bhutan, Australia, China, Vietnam. Last year, they went to Turkey, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan “mostly the exotic places.”
They document their mother-son travel on YouTube under Six7Films, like this one, from nine years ago, to Machu Picchu and Iguaza Falls, that begins with Chris saying: “When I was 16, my mom made me a promise: She said, ‘One day when we’re not broke, I’ll take you travelling.’ Well, I’m now a 30-year-old broke law student with a video camera and mom’s making good on her promise.”
He now works for the BC Securities Commission and has spoken for one of CARP’s seminars on frauds and scams, but she says he’s become quite good at editing these travel videos together. She takes the photos and puts them all in a book as a memento of each trip.
“Next year, we’re looking at Morocco and Jordan.”
