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A Rich, Full Life & Still Going Strong |
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 Leventine Adams of Summerland is spending her life giving back to the country that has given so much to her and her family. Over the years, she has been an energetic volunteer and employed in positions that directly help people.
Leventine remembers her Ukrainian-born paternal grandfather telling her “Canada doesn’t owe you anything, but you owe everything to Canada.”
“My grandfather’s parents had been chosen by Canadian officials to help settle the prairies. Just before they were to leave my great grandfather died,” Leventine said. Unwilling to lose the opportunity to live in Canada, her great grandmother came with Leventine’s grandfather, aged 8 years, and his18-month old sister.
“They homesteaded at Sheho, Saskatchewan, near Yorkton,” Leventine said.
Eventually, her grandfather married a 16-year old young woman who had come from the Ukraine the year before in1905.
“During the flu epidemic of 1918 my father’s family who managed to escape serious harm helped their less fortunate neighbours,” Leventine said.
The family delivered food by horse-drawn buggy in winter to homes where they would find sick, sometimes dead, neighbours and friends.
“The farm animals would be crying and they would feed them,” Leventine said.
Leventine’s mother was born in Canada to Ukrainian immigrants.” My mother’s father had been a Cossack and carried a big stick. That’s why all of us children learned to run so well,” she recalled.
Most of the men in Leventine’s extended family fought in the Second World War.
This meant that the women were left to do the farm work so everyone had to pitch in. Upon returning home many of the men took advantage of the Service Bill to continue their education and eventually left prairie farming life behind.
As a teenager, Leventine moved with her parents to Prince George where she met her husband-to-be, Don Adams, who was working for Finning Tractor & Equipment. As their family grew, they moved to the Lower Mainland so their oldest child would be near medical care for an eye problem. In 1997, the couple retired to Summerland, Don’s hometown.
Once settled in Summerand, Leventine began volunteering in high school. Her earlier endeavours had included helping to obtain funds to build Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody and in establishing the scouting program, Beavers, in British Columbia.
“Beavers are for boys aged five to seven—a few years younger than Cubs. I recruited and trained leaders for the province,” Leventine said.
She has played key roles in setting up a school program for abused children and for having children receive the measles vaccine free of charge. Leventine was involved with the Seniors Housing Society in Port Coquille which built a facility based on a new concept at the time, namely, having different levels of care under the same roof. Following five years as a paid childcare worker, Leventine became an employment counselor with social services for over 20 years.
In midlife, she earned a diploma in gerontology from Douglas College to enhance her work in helping needy people with their finances.
For the past six years Leventine has been a volunteer at the Summerland Food Bank which served over 100 clients last year.
“Because of the generosity of the community we’re able to go that extra mile,” she said, referring to such things as being able to provide a wide variety of higher quality food items and an ample Christmas hamper accompanied by gifts. Leventine is particularly proud of the self-service system she helped establish at the food bank. It allows people to take only what they want, similar to shopping at a grocery store, and is working very well. Don handles the telephone requests for the food bank while Leventine does the scheduling.
With the assistance of the youth organization, Summerland Asset Development Initiative, Leventine hopes to see a community kitchen established.
“I organized a community kitchen at the Women’s Centre in Port Coquitlam,” she said.
At home Leventine continues her family’s tradition of gardening and setting an ample table of delicious dishes.
“I can still hear Lev’s mother say eat, eat,” Don said.
“She thought I was starving Don because he was so skinny,” Leventine recalled.
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