The Crikvenica City and Vinodolska Municipality Pensioners' Association celebrated its 80th birthday with a solemn assembly at Hotel Katarina in Selce. It is one of the largest and oldest associations in the Crikvenica city and Vinodolska municipality area, currently gathering around 1,000 members.
Association president Branko Vidas highlighted that the group is celebrating 80 years of tradition and continuous work. He recalled the period before the coronavirus pandemic, when the association's work, as he said, was flowing at a good rhythm. Vidas thanked the City of Crikvenica and Vinodolska Municipality for their wholehearted help and support. The association's secretary is Katica (Keti) Mureta.
Long-time president and prominent member Rudolf Smoljan spoke about the association's history. The beginnings of its work are linked to 25 April 1946, when the Federal Pensioners' Association was founded, a date recorded as the founding day of today's Croatian Pensioners' Association (Matica umirovljenika Hrvatske). At that time, there were only about 70,000 pensioners in Croatia. The Crikvenica-Vinodolje pensioners' association was founded on 1 September 1946, and its establishment is linked to the efforts of Darinko Palačić, the association's long-time secretary.
In the post-war period, the association cared for the distribution of basic foodstuffs, textiles, heating fuel and social assistance. In early 1947, the publication Glas penzionera (Voice of Pensioners) began to be printed, later renamed Hrvatski umirovljenički list (Croatian Pensioners' List), which is still published monthly today. The first pensioners' association statute in Croatia was adopted in 1968. The period from 1971 to 1988 is noted for the fact that pensioners, through community assemblies, had a third of the delegates and directly influenced the pension system, income adjustment and financial plans. In the 1970s, there were about 600,000 pensioners in Croatia, roughly half of today's number, and the ratio of workers working for one pensioner was 3:1, whereas today it is 1.5:1.
The Croatian Pensioners' Association changed its name to the Croatian Pensioners' Association (Matica hrvatskih umirovljenika) in 1992, and a few years later to the Croatian Pensioners' Association (Matica umirovljenika Hrvatske), the name it bears today. The new statute emphasises that the Association is a voluntary, independent, non-partisan, non-profit and humanitarian organisation that admits all pension beneficiaries regardless of the type of pension, religious, party or any other affiliation. The Crikvenica-Vinodolje pensioners' association joined the Croatian Pensioners' Association in 1997, and in 2000 it joined the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Pensioners' Community, which changed its name to the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Pensioners' Association in 2008. From 2012 to 2016, Anđelko Manestar, then president and one of the founders, headed the county association; he served as the association's leader for the longest period, from 1993 to 2011, i.e. 18 years.
Around 50 per cent of all pensioners in the area they cover are members of the association. The association has 8 branches — four in the Vinodolska municipality area (Bribir, Grižane, Tribalj and Drivenik) and four in the Crikvenica city area (Crikvenica, Selce, Dramalj and Jadranovo). The number of members varied from 298 in the year of founding, through 1,408 members in 2006 and 1,238 members in 2014, to a drop to around 850 during the coronavirus period, after which they have reached around 1,000 members in recent years.
The association is distinguished by numerous humanitarian actions, such as the purchase of a mammograph for the Crikvenica Health Centre in 2007. It organises the traditional Pensioners' Ball, which raises funds for needy members and young people with developmental difficulties, and maintains constant cooperation with the Nada Association in Rijeka, which brings together people suffering from breast cancer. It organises thematic lectures and participates in the programmes of the City of Crikvenica and Vinodolska Municipality, tourist boards, local councils, cultural institutions, the Museum, the Red Cross and similar bodies, and is active in masquerades and many other events.
The Crikvenica City and Vinodolska Municipality Pensioners' Association received the City of Crikvenica Annual Award in 2006 and 2021. Anđelko Manestar was awarded the City of Crikvenica Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021, Kuzma Dokoza in 2022, and Rudolf Smoljan in 2024.
