More than a model: How a ship building club connects seniors in Calgary

by Jana Zalmanowitz, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(AJNews) – Monday mornings are hard. But at the Calgary Paperny Family JCC, they come with coffee, conversation and the slow construction of a 105-cannon ship.

I’d heard that seniors’ programming at the JCC was expanding its offerings. It’s not my demographic, but as a daytime JCC-user, I can’t ignore the robust role seniors have in keeping the building buzzing during work hours. One program sounded particularly charming: the Monday morning Model Ship Building Club.

On a recent visit, I stopped by the seniors’ lounge. A fresh pot of coffee brewed, snacks were laid out and “coffee talk” hummed around the table. At the helm is Seniors Program Manager, Jackie Herman. She politely interrupts the conversation, which she acknowledges will continue indefinitely if she does not, and half the participants filter into another room.

This room also offers an array of wares on the table, but they aren’t refreshments.

With that, I’m welcomed into the JCC’s weekly Model Ship Building Club. An activity I know nothing about, but as its members assure me, experience is not a prerequisite for participation.

The idea began with member, Bill Levy, who, while downsizing, discovered an unbuilt model HMS Victory he hadn’t gotten around to. For those new to model ship building, this is a massive undertaking. The instructions are lengthy and assume prior knowledge. Roughly 2300 miniature pieces, wait to be held together with glue, adorned by pinpricks of paint and strung intricately with tiny lines and delicately sewn sails.

Levy illustrates the complexity, describing the ship’s cannons.

“To make a cannon on a ship of 105 cannons, each one requires the assembly of two sides, a bottom, a front,” he explains. “Then the cannon sits on top, which is made of two halves with a cork and a string. You have to paint the wheels and the little metal bars that hold it together. Different colors for each carriage.”

Levy has done this before. It took him three years and this time he decided not to go it alone.

A relative newcomer to Calgary, Levy offered up his model to the JCC this January. He wanted to build it, but also to create something more meaningful. In retirement, he says, connection can be harder to come by, especially for men.

“Women are social people and [men] are isolationists in our little caves,” Levy jokes. “I thought it would be a great activity for the guys.”

Herman had also noticed the same pattern. While many programs naturally attracted women, she was looking for ways to engage more men. Every successful program must include food, so she secured an anonymous donor to fund the refreshments and gave the club a place in the schedule.

On the day I visit, Levy and two other members are at work representing their fellow builders. They estimate there are about eight regulars who cycle through, each one bringing something to the table.

Ed Smith says he joined as a way to “meet allegedly nice people.” Within moments of meeting him, his dry humour confirms his role as comic relief. He askes me, deadpan, if I’d like him to spell his name for my record. Smith downplays his contribution, saying he’s simply there, “to put A together with B,” but does admit that the work reconnects him with a hobby he enjoyed as a child.

Klas Ohman had a similar motivation. “I’m moving very slowly into retirement,” he says, and recalled advice from a lecture he once attended. “One of the things they said was when you start going into retirement, look at the things you liked to do before you started working and think about doing that. One of the things I did a lot of was build models as a kid.”

The group also feels lucky to have recruited a few members of Rimon Calgary, a local needlework guild dedicated to Judaic textile art. Having worked on multiple projects in the Jewish community, the women of Rimon were well poised to bring the sails to life, taking care to adapt the design and fabric to ensure historical accuracy.

No one here is taking credit for being the leader and they make it clear they’re always looking for new talent (all genders and all ages), excited to see who might join the crew.

When I ask about timelines for completion. This is when the real purpose of the Monday Morning Ship Building Club is revealed.

“It’s more of a social coffee thing than it is a model thing,” Smith says.

Levy reinforces this message. “We drink coffee and hopefully someday this is going to be finished,” he shrugs.

Ohman nods in agreement. “I think we’re actually a social coffee club with a ship problem now,” he says, referring to the group’s penchant for coffee and resulting slow progress.

There’s pride in their work. There’s satisfaction in returning to a forgotten hobby. But really, they just like getting together. The banter, the ease, and the connection between people who were once strangers.

Herman notices the ship has done its job. “Many women will socialize for the sake of socializing and men like to have a task to bond over,” she says. The club is almost like a gateway and they start coming more often to attend other programs.

The ship is simply the vehicle.

The HMS Victory may one day be finished, but that’s not really the point. On Monday mornings, seniors come to the JCC for coffee, and under the guise of building a ship, it’s friendships that take shape.