practical living
the total down as 50, and it’s 49 or something, and they’ll soon
yell at you and say: “No, no!” The exercises get quite competitive,
and we get very loud. It’s funny.
We go on trips, and we only do four trips a year because
they pay $2 to come in every week, and that $2 goes towards
subsidising the trips. So far, all of our trips have only cost them
around $30, where the trip itself has cost $60 or $70. They really
love the trips, going to see things they never thought they’d see,
things they’d heard about. Even the change in the suburbs. They
go around these suburbs and say: “Oh my god, Mrs Smith lived
there and the house is gone.”
We have a birthday party every year. We try to get
entertainment for that. That’s quite an exciting day, and we have
a Christmas party at the end of the year. Anything we do comes
from the $2 each week, plus we have a raffle sometimes, and a
tray table every month.
Where have you gone on some of those trips?
One of the favourite ones was down to Sorrento and across the
bay to Queenscliff for lunch, and home through Werribee. We’ve
been everywhere. We went up to Healesville before the fires,
and before the floods, and afterwards saw the difference in the
places up there. Dame Nellie Melba’s house, Ballam Park Estate,
Daylesford, Alexander, and we’ve done quite a few trips down the
Gippsland way.
One particular one was the potato farm, which we loved. They
make potato ice cream. They loved that trip. The hostess down
there gets on the bus and it’s just a dream. She’s fantastic. She
does poetry and sings songs and tells us all about potatoes and
everything down there.
You were named a finalist in the HESTA Community Sector
Awards for 2017. What message do you hope the recognition
sends to other volunteers or people thinking of volunteering in
their community to improve the lives of older Australians?
The recognition is really exciting. It’s something I didn’t expect.
You see people in the paper getting awards for things. It’s not
what you go for. I’d advise people out there just to get in and
make it an enjoyment for yourself. It’s more important for you to
enjoy every day helping other people to enjoy every day, and the
award at the end of it is the icing on the cake.
What drives you to continue to run this club?
It’s the people. I said yesterday: “I just love everybody!” I write
a newsletter every so often, and I always put “Love you” on the
bottom of it, or something like that.
Everybody that comes through the door – it’s the friendliness,
the warmth. They’re there because they want to be. They don’t
have to come along.
I have one gentlemen who just started. He’s 88 and very
interested. He’s only been twice, but oh my goodness does he
talk. Most of them love a chat, and I terribly miss the ones that
have gone – it’s awful – but I think it keeps me going. Like, on a
Wednesday, you’ve got to get up early, go to the RSL, rearrange
chairs, put out the books and all the rest of it. We have a book
swap as well.
There’s one 96-year-old lady, she has just recently had breast
cancer. She’s so funny, and she’s there every week, bright-
eyed, and I heard yesterday she also goes to the exercises on a
Thursday as well. People say: “Oh my god, she’s 90!” Well, no,
she’s 96! It’s unbelievable. I just love them. ■
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