Trillium Communities | Peninsula

Our Leadership Care Team

Denise Tidman

Executive Director

Denise Tidman

Executive Director

Denise Tidman carries on her family’s tradition of excellence as our Executive Director. Born and raised on the Peninsula, Denise started out in real estate, but when Norgarden opened 25 years ago, she came home to the family business. She started in the marketing department at Norgarden and at the same time went back to school and obtained a Diploma in Health Care Administration. After a year, Denise became the Executive Director of Norgarden Estates and now oversees all aspects of Norgarden and the Peninsula. Denise brings a special quality to her leadership, and in doing so has created a community of inclusion and open-heartedness for both staff and residents. Denise spent six years on the board of BC Senior sLiving Association, which developed the Seal of Approval standards that govern self-selecting retirement communities across BC.

In her early 20’s, she rode professionally with a Sales and Training Barn and it is still a passion of hers, but now she does it for pure enjoyment. Denise is married to an amazing husband and has a wonderful daughter. They live on the Saanich Peninsula on a hobby farm.

Leslie Whittaker

Assistant Manager

Kai Alberring

Maintenance Manager

Kai Alberring

Maintenance Manager

Having more than over 20 years in the industry, Kai first joined as part of the maintenance team and has since been promoted to maintenance manager. Originally from Germany, Kai lives on the Saanich Peninsula and has very strong ties to the community. He loves getting to know the residents on an individual basis, and works extremely hard to meet their specific needs, while ensuring that suites and all common facilities are held to a high standard of care. Kai has a strong work ethic, organizational, and leadership skills. The need to multitask in his role is an absolute must, and he does it with ease. Kai’s mottos are “never give up” and “you can fix anything!” During his time off, Kai enjoys spending time with his family outdoors.

Kathleen Harapnuk

Activities Coordinator

Kathleen Harapnuk

Activities Coordinator

16 years ago when Kathleen’s own father was in a retirement community, she marvelled at all the activities available to him and thought that being an Activities Coordinator would be very rewarding. She knew Denise Tidman and one day when she was talking to Denise she mentioned that very thing. As it happens the Tidman’s had just opened the Peninsula and the current Activities Coordinator was about to retire. Kathleen was hired and quickly grew into the job, learning so much about what our residents need and want.

Kathleen has quite an artistic flair and loves not only creating new activities, but also using her artistic talents to decorate (Christmas is a winter wonderland at the Peninsula, for example) and design all manner of things. She loves coming to work each day and thinks of it as having 139 grandparents. She loves to make their dreams of an activity they would like to do come true.

Kathleen has been married 30 years and has two amazing kids, one who used to work for us and one who has been with us for three years now.