Chris & Audrey Grootenboer have shown great interest in the planning and development of Pennock Village since it was first introduced to the community. Being the first to purchase a Life Lease Garden Home in 2025, these long-time rural residents of Oliver Paipoonge found this to be the perfect fit to what they were looking for in their later years of retirement.
“Being in our golden years, it was time to downsize and become more maintenance-free. God had blessed us with a beautiful country home and a large yard, for many years. But we started to realize that it was getting to be too much work to maintain our property. We didn’t enjoy the upkeep as much as we had in the past.”
Chris and Audrey were among those that attended the first public Open House, held at the Rosslyn Community Hall in December 2023, which included basic development plans and drawings. The amount of positive feedback through community attendees that night was very encouraging.
“We had already been considering a move when we heard about this development. The Open House was informative, and we became very interested – a community non-profit housing project within Oliver Paipoonge which allowed seniors a maintenance-free lifestyle. We became aware that these kinds of senior retirement villages have been very successful in both Alberta and Ontario. Through prayer and discussion, we decided we would support James Collie and his team in this project. God was leading us in this direction.”
Showing such interest led Chris and Audrey to become the first official home-buyers at Pennock Village. When the time came to hold a larger public event to signify the official start of construction – the Breaking Ground Ceremony in May 2025 – Chris and Audrey were asked to ‘hold a shovel’ in the ceremony, alongside several key dignitaries and community Board members.
May 31, 2025 | Chris & Audrey became a part of the Breaking Ground Ceremony, held in celebration of the start of Pennock Village’s Phase One development.
“We decided to apply for a unit and, to our surprise, were assigned to 222 Goldenrod Crescent! We have watched the walls go up – it’s been exciting to see the progress on the building site and how Pennock Village has become a reality. We are thankful it is close to our church, our children and their families, to town for grocery shopping, appointments and other business. We pray for God’s continued blessing on this project, and look forward to living there in 2026, D.V. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”
Chris and Audrey anticipate the lifestyle which awaits them at Pennock Village, showing an incredible amount of trust and enthusiasm towards the first phase of development. They leave readers with this: “We hope and pray that many more seniors will decide that Pennock Village is a dream come true – the ideal place to live throughout retirement.”