By Kellie Hudson

Call it “pay it forward,” Carol Busch-style.
Every week, Thunder Bay’s General Manager of Finance and City Treasurer takes time out of her busy schedule to go for a walk. And not just any walk.

She locks arms with Sheila Symes and together, they log about three kilometres in and around downtown Fort William.

“We go at a good pace,” Busch says of her 89-year-old walking buddy. “Sheila loves to walk and so do I. She is so appreciative. There are no demands. You just get together and it’s such an enjoyable hour. It’s amazing how quickly the time passes.”

Busch has been volunteering with the Thunder Bay 55 Plus Centre’s Support Services Programs for about eight years now. The centre offers three different outreach services for seniors living in the community: Friendly Visiting, Telephone Assurance and Walk-A-Bit.

You could say Busch does a little bit of all three. A call here, a visit there, and lots of walks in between.
“My weekly walking dates give me a reason to get away from my desk at work and enjoy the fabulous outdoors, de-stress, have some laughs and interesting conversations,” she says.

Busch first got involved back in 2000, when she moved here to start her new job at the City of Thunder Bay. She’s responsible for the corporation’s $350 million dollar budget, as well as accounting and investments, revenue billing and collection, materials management, and Corporate Information and Technology.

A single mother of four, she thought volunteering would be a good way to meet people. Her first client - or friend as she calls them because that’s what they become - was in her early 80s, and lived just down the street.

“I needed a volunteering opportunity that I could do with my two youngest children at the time, but something flexible, that I could work around my schedule,” Busch says. “We got together every week. She became like family. We would visit at her place, go for ice cream, to a movie, for a walk or out for lunch. Often we had tea and chatted about current events.

“It got to be that before we went away for Christmas to visit my family, we’d stop over at her place first and have a little celebration.”

When the elderly woman passed away three years ago, Busch was devastated. “You know, we were very close friends and she was like a grandmother to the children. It was very hard.” She took a break from the program, not sure if she wanted to go through the emotional heartbreak again.

But as time passed, Busch found she missed the walks, the talks – and the friendship.

“There’s something about spending some time and sharing with people of all ages,” Busch says. “You can learn a lot from seniors. I want to show my children the importance of volunteering, and that by giving back, we can make our community a better place to live.”

Kathy Gibson is the coordinator of the Support Services Programs.

She says there’s a reason participants get so close.

“We make a considerable effort to ensure that people are compatible and have similar interests,” Gibson says. “As a result, close friendships often develop.”

When Busch was ready to volunteer again, she was introduced to Symes in October 2007.
Busch recalls that first meeting.

“It was a little awkward for both of us,” she says. “We were complete strangers after all. But it didn’t take long to get comfortable with each other. The common thread is we both like to walk. As we walk, we get talking about family, what we like to do. We talk about vacations and places we’d like to visit. It just kind of evolves.”

Seeing them together, you can’t help but notice the bond. The older woman’s face lights up when she sees Busch. Smiles and laughs are abundant. They lock arms as they walk. And talk. They even finish each other’s sentences.

“We walk about three-quarters of an hour, maybe an hour,” explains Symes, who turns 90 this summer. “We don’t dawdle. We just join hands and away we go. I just love it. We talk about anything and everything. I look forward to our visits.”

Symes has been on her own since her husband died in 1996. They’d been married for nearly 60 years. She has a son in Ottawa and a daughter who lives in Thunder Bay, but winters in Texas six months a year.

“It was very difficult at first, I missed my husband a lot,” Symes recalls. “Then a friend of mine called one day and said that’s enough moping around the house. Would you like to come out and see the 55 Plus Centre?”
They used to go steady every Monday, have lunch and play some cards. Lately though, Symes can’t get there nearly as often. It’s too far away. She doesn’t drive and from her residence, there are too many bus connections.
So now, through Busch – and the Support Services Programs – the Thunder Bay 55 Plus Centre comes right to her door.
And that’s the whole point. The Support Services Programs are geared specifically to seniors who are isolated, housebound or just lonely.
Currently, there are 75 volunteers who spend about an hour a week, calling, visiting or walking with a senior citizen.
There’s never a shortage of clients, Gibson says, but there is a shortage of volunteers.

“We are always looking for new recruits,” she says. “There are people who may be looking for something meaningful to do. Yes, it is a commitment, but there’s room for flexibility too. Even just a bit of your time, an hour a week even, can make a huge difference in someone’s life.”

Busch is proof of that.
A high-powered career woman, a busy mother of four with a new puppy in the household to boot, and she still finds the time to give, and give some more.
In addition to the Thunder Bay 55 Plus Centre’s programs, Busch is also very involved with The United Way, has written a cookbook – the proceeds of which go to The Thunder Bay Boys and Girls Club – and she volunteers on occasion at her children’s school.

“If you are really interested in volunteering and committed to it, you’ll find the time,” she says. “You get much more than you put in. I guess I’m doing it for selfish reasons too because as I get older, I look to the future. And I hope someone will do this for me too someday, spend some time with me. So I’m kind of paying it forward.”