practical living
Wildflowers
blooming
The Wildflower Day Club aims to
overcome loneliness among widows and
widowers with outings and activities.
By Dallas Bastian
F
or the past 16 years, Margaret Jorgensen has been ensuring
older people in her local community who have lost a
partner are not alone.
To eliminate the social isolation many elderly Australians
experience, Jorgensen began the Wildflower Day Club at
Watsonia RSL. The club’s weekly outings and activities aim to
help patrons and members of the community who have lost a
partner make new friends.
For her volunteer work, Jorgensen was recognised by HESTA
as one of Australia’s most outstanding individuals working in the
community sector. The super fund named her a finalist in the
Unsung Hero category of its 2017 Community Sector Awards.
HESTA said Jorgensen was recognised for creating
programs and activities that encourage social participation
and improved wellbeing for elderly members of the
Watsonia RSL.
Jorgensen has spent the last 35 years volunteering at the RSL,
taking part in fundraising, accounting and coordinating activities
for members.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Jorgensen about the Wildflower
Day Club and what the outings mean to its members.
ACI: You took members of the Wildflower Day Club out just
recently. What sorts of things did you get up to?
MJ: We actually have the same program every week, because I
feel that the members that come – our oldest is not long gone,
she was 100, so we’ve got them aged 60 to 100 – like the same
thing happening each week. They know when they come in they
have a cup of coffee, they do exercises, and then after that a quiz.
20 agedcareinsite.com.au
It’s comforting for them to feel like they know what’s going on.
As for the people, I didn’t actually target widows and
widowers. We actually wanted ‘shut-ins’, people who have
family but don’t see them very much, people in the street, in the
suburbs, who haven’t got anywhere to go. We wanted to give
them the opportunity to meet people with similar interests.
It’s amazing how they meet people who come from the
same suburbs originally, and maybe they might have been
seamstresses or bankers. It’s quite good. Those first few years
they all got together as groups and met happily. The most
important part, I think, was them saying: “This keeps me alive.”
That’s what makes you keep going.
What other feedback have you received from members?
I think it’s the happy faces that come in through the door and
make you feel good. You might feel tired, and you get to the
club, and