Rooted in Riverview

Our Stories – Jean Altemeyer

For a community centre to really thrive, it ought to provide opportunities for all ages. “As people get older, they lose family and friends, capacity sometimes, so being able to contribute in whatever way they can helps maintain that community strength,” says
longtime volunteer Jean Altemeyer. “A community centre needs to have stuff on offer that people want. And it has to be welcoming when you show up. Riverview seems to do that really well.”

Jean moved to Winnipeg in 1968 when her late husband, Bob, got a job at the University of Manitoba. The young couple settled into a home just off Churchill Drive — just west of Osborne.

“We arrived pregnant with our first kid and then after we lived here a while, we looked at each other and said, why would we ever leave? So we never did,” she says.

As her children grew up, the Altemeyers spent some time at RVCC, but the bulk of those early years were spent at Lord Roberts Community Centre where her children played sports.

“Then, life circumstances were such that in 2002, we ended up adopting a grandchild,” she says. “Once he got to the point that he was doing skating, Riverview had more access to facilities so he would come over here.”

From that point, Jean got more involved at RVCC, coaching soccer, volunteering her time with the Frost Bite River Run, the chilli competition, the trees committee and more. “I’m a person who has done a lot of volunteering, so that was easy to become part of,”
she says. “When they started pickleball here, I met a whole other batch of people, so it’s no longer linked through our kids.”

While children’s sports and activities are often a community centre’s bread and butter, making it a place for everyone is important to its sustainability.

“Someone said something to me some years ago when I first started getting involved, they said, ‘What are you doing getting involved with the club? Your kids are grown and gone’,” Jean says. “My response was, ‘When my kids were little and life was wild, there were people doing stuff at the club that let me participate, so it’s only fair that I pay that
back.’”

Jean credits the management and board at RVCC with thoughtful planning and development in making the club the diverse, welcoming place it is today.

“When (past-president) Dennis Cunningham saw that the kitchen was renovated to be an industrial kitchen so that it could be a revenue stream, and that brings in a whole different community, so you’re not relying only on the local community for revenue,” she says.

Having a place that’s a part of one’s life, through all its changes, is special. When Jean’s husband, Bob, died a few years ago, she turned to RVCC to bring his many friends together to celebrate his life.

“He had not wanted any event in his honour. We looked at each other and said, ‘He’s not here anymore, so he can’t tell us what to do’,” Jean recalls with a laugh. “So we gathered here, because he’d always felt connected to the club. So we gathered here
and it felt very appropriate. It wasn’t particularly somber. Because Bob had many different threads and interests in his life, it was a chance to bring those threads together. When I’d contacted the club about doing that, there was no hesitation.”

In the end, it’s up to the community to help make its local club a place where everyone can gather, no matter the occasion.

“We’re all in this together,” Jean says.