Seniors all week in NSW
Uniting Care Ageing is getting into the spirit of NSW Seniors Week, which celebrates contributions made by older member of society.
Above, Gordon is a horse trainer and Anzhen, below, is a successful recording artist.
By Stephen Easton
NSW Seniors Week, from March 20 to 27, is all about celebrating the achievements of seniors and the contribution they make to society, and UnitingCare Ageing is in the swing of it, helping to debunk the myths of ageing.
Director of Operations Joanne Toohey said the Seniors Week programs were about bringing their residential care clients to the fore in their local communities, along with friends and families to highlight the important roles played by older people in society, even those in residential aged care.
“It’s a whole range of activities,” Ms Toohey said. “We’ve got six regions across NSW and the ACT, and each of our services runs a range of Seniors Week activities – Sydney had a ball on Friday at the Hordern Pavillion for over a thousand residential care clients and family members.”
“The ball was a celebration of clients and their lives – it gave people the opportunity to do something they wouldn’t do normally. There were people there from nursing homes, low care facilities, day centres and people on packaged care in the community, ranging from age 56 up to 102.”
“It was absolutely about debunking the myth, when you talk about people in their 90s going on bumper cars and having camel rides. It was called ‘A Night at the Casbah’ – we had a Middle Eastern theme with snake charmers, tarot card readers, a band and all sorts of other performers.”
Many of Uniting Care’s clients are perfect examples of stereotype-smashing seniors, like 98-year-old Margaret, who still makes finger puppets by hand to sell for charity, or John, 93, who is in the middle of an antique motorcycle restoration.
Expert pianist Anzhen is recording artist at 85 years young, currently in production on her fourth album in the last two years and husband and wife Pat and Gordon have together trained a successful racehorse and written an autobiography, at 75 and 77 respectively.
Through special awards, Seniors Week rewards outstanding achievements by specific older people like Anthony Hardman, who was the driving force behind the opening of a community bank in Milton on the South Coast in 2004, in an effort to keep profits in the community.
Mr Hardman now volunteers as a mentor, helping to spread his knowledge and experience for free to people in other communities who want to set up a community bank, and often sees other people in his age group with plenty left to contribute.
“We find the people who have the spare time, the willingness and the commitment to the local community are the seniors,” he said. “Our age group seem to have a strong attachment to, and pride in their community.”
“To establish a community bank is fairly big business, so it’s a fairly large commitment on the part of several individuals. It’s the core business acumen usually that comes from the older people because they can draw on their life experiences and put them into practice for a worthy cause.”
