The Chair for East Borderland Community Housing says it is extremely isolating when a senior from the Sprague area is forced to move to a personal care home in Vita, Steinbach or beyond. Yet, that is the reality facing Sprague residents at this time.

The group has been fundraising for many years to try and drum up the necessary support and dollars to build a 20-bed facility. Elsa Laing says to this day there is no 24-hour care facility for seniors in the Rural Municipality of Piney. East Borderland was formed in 2005, though Laing says prior to then, there were other groups lobbying for this.

"The need is so great that our optimism just remains alive," says Laing.

The goal is for the community to raise about $800,000. Laing guesses a new PCH could cost nearly $10 million. To date, the group has $150,000 in the bank, plus a $400,000 commitment from the RM of Piney. Laing says they also own the land where the home would be built. She notes the financial contribution is not the highest hurdle for them to cross.

"The biggest obstacle for us is to convince the government to do it for us," she says. "We're remote and we're disadvantaged in many ways because we don't have the masses of population, but our need is there."

Laing says with the change in government, their lobbying efforts have slowed a little but she says because of the needs in their municipality, the province needs to look at this.

"Moving to a care home is extremely isolating at best," says Laing. "But when you are pulled out of your community for such a great distance it's extremely isolating for them."

Laing says when a senior doesn't live close to friends or family, they get fewer visitors, making them feel all the more isolated.

East Borderland Community Housing is holding a book sale this week at Clearspring Centre in Steinbach. This is the 8th annual sale. Laing says their goal each year is to raise $5,000 at the sale.