Woden Seniors Inc

50 years of providing Community Service to the over-50s of Canberra

Apr
13

By

Fortnightly News 11/4/2025

Category: Fortnightly News

Issue 07 of 2025  

11 April 2025

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Dates to Remember

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Friday 18 April – Good Friday Public Holiday – Club will be closed
Monday 21 April – Easter Monday Public Holiday – Club will be closed
Thursday 24 April –  2.00pm …Thank You afternoon tea for Book Fair Volunteers
Thursday 24 April – Issue 08 of the Fortnightly News Update
Friday 25 April – ANZAC Day Public Holiday – Club will be closed
Friday 2 May – NEW ACTIVITY – Canasta.  See below.
Friday 9 May – Mothers’ Day afternoon tea and raffle draw

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BOOK FAIR

Once again, thanks to the organisers and workers we have pulled off a very successful Book Fair!!

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Below from Judy Henderson, Book Fair Co-ordinator:

 We held our tenth BIG Book Fair on the weekend of 4, 5 and 6 April.  It was a great success which raised over $35,000 for the Club.

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The success of such an event depends on the support of a large number of members. The whole Club, as a self-funded organisation, benefits from the Book Fair. Its proceeds keep the activity fee low and contribute to every area of Club expenditure – building maintenance, heating and cooling, cleaning, insurance…and no end of general expenses.

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Special thanks go to:

• The fantastic members of the teams that spent many hours every week over the last year cleaning, sorting, and packing books and other items. These teams led by Anne Slaney, Judy Henderson and Chris Mackay and including Bill, Agatha, Diana, Evonne, Annie, Pauline, Rhonda, Trish, Muriel, Tracy, Cindy, Janet K, Fay, Sue, and Rosemary operated on Monday afternoon and Wednesday and Friday mornings and were responsible for the high quality of the books offered.
• Nerida Foster and Doug Wilkinson who managed the storage container and storeroom so efficiently throughout the year. Between them they stored and then moved into the designated places 1600 boxes of stock.
• The car park attendants especially Richard Game, David Slaney and Ron Stewart who did it all day each day.
• The welcome team led by Jennifer Pratten who collected the entry donations and handed out information.
• Catherine Masters who did the bookkeeping.
• Don Puttick, Jenny Gregory, Roni, Maureen, Rhonda, Sandra, Von, and Viola, and their helpers on the checkouts.
• Chris Mackay and Janet Kahler who managed Hall 1 and all their helpers.
• Mark Sheen and Agatha who looked after the jigsaws, games, DVDs, and CDs in the veranda.
• Bill, Tracy and Adrian, who managed the non-fiction in Hall 2, and all their helpers.
• Sue and Katherine who managed the children’s area and all their helpers.
• Anne Slaney who managed the President’s Table and Better Books and was responsible for researching and preparing the collectable books for the President’s Table.
• Tony and the team who unpacked and returned the tables and bread trays.
• Don and Ron who installed the roadside signs.
• Maruta and Roger who, as multi skilled backup persons,  were available for different roles at the drop of a hat.
• The Marist students and their teacher Nathan Ahearne who helped pack up.
• The Canberra College students who helped with setting up and packing up.
• The members and their friends who helped set up on Thursday 3 April.
• The members who came to help pack up at the end – it was great to have some fresh, energetic people.
• Ann Baker and the WOWs (Watercolours on Wednesdays group) for the beautiful cards and bookmarks, and display of paintings.
• The catering team who donated the food for the volunteers and Kari who took care of the volunteers’ room.
• Polly for all her incredible assistance. No task was ever too much trouble. She made thousands of bookmarks, scores of signs, and undertook numerous administrative tasks at the drop of a hat and always with a smile.
• President Jenny for her calm, thoughtful approach to all tasks, sound guidance, willing assistance, and support.
• Ron and the team who managed the building and surrounds throughout the Book Fair.
• Sandra Gray for the publicity.
• The card making group for all the cards that were for sale.
• Activity groups for putting up with the disruption before and after the event.
• Justine Burke of Luton Weston Creek and Molonglo Valley for printing the posters.
• The Weston Creek Uniting Church for the loan of tables.
• James Gourley of NewBeach Co for the poster design.
• The generous community that donated books, and
• Last but not least  – all who bought the books, jigsaws, games, CDs, DVDs, and paintings.
• An Afternoon Tea to thank all the Book Fair volunteers will be held at the Club on THURSDAY AFTERNOON 24TH MAY at 2pm.  You are all invited.   Please RSVP to Polly if you are able to attend.

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During the last year we continued to reach out to the community, resulting in many benefits for those concerned. We assisted the Toora women’s refuges with donations of activity books for children. We donated some boxes of left over children’s books to a literacy project in New Guinea, Buk Bilong Pikanini. We donated left over books to Roundabout. We donated regularly to the Hughes Community Centre Book Exchange as well as street libraries.

The Book Fair Committee will be having a review meeting in the coming weeks so think about how you would like to be more involved or anything that would help to make the 2026 Book Fair even better and let us know. We are always looking for new volunteers, who can bring new ideas. Some of us are retiring, so we desperately need some younger people to take it on if the Book Fair is to continue.

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Judy Henderson

Coordinator

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The joint was jumping!!

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PARKING

The efficacy of our new regime is obvious as you drive in to the Club and there are parking spots for all.

For now we are continuing to monitor the vehicles parked and it will help the volunteers doing this work if members can display their parking permits.  This will save the legs of the volunteers and save Polly’s time checking the membership database.  If you don’t have or have lost your permit card, Polly will be happy to provide you with a new one!!

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RAFFLE – STILL TIME TO GET YOUR TICKETS

A reminder of our raffle….tickets are $1.00 each and are available from Polly now, singly or in books of 6…. to buy for yourself and/or sell .   The raffle will be drawn on Friday 9th May at the Club.   The prizes are on display at Polly’s counter.

Don’t miss your chance to win one of these lovely handmade items – or just think of the massive brownie points you could earn by selling the winning ticket to a friend.

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                        A NEW ACTIVITY

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Do you play Canasta?  Would you like to learn to play Canasta? 

A new group will start on FRIDAY AFTERNOON 2ND MAY 1-3pm. Come along and play, beginners and experienced players welcome!

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WOW, WOW, WOW

Prepare to be amazed!  Thanks to Kari and her team who undertaking the task of keeping our kitchen areas clean and fit for purpose.  They are receiving what can only be called a fresh Nordic breeze! 

So clean, shiny, tidy and organised.

Now it will be up to us all to help keep them that way.

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Jenny Gregory

President

Woden Seniors Inc.

PO Box 345, Woden ACT 2606 Tel: (02) 6282 2573

Email: president@wodenseniors.org.au        

www.wodenseniors.org.au 

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THE LAST WORDS

The CEO of a major bank made economists think when he said:

′′A cyclist is a disaster for the country’s economy: he doesn’t buy cars and doesn’t borrow money to buy them. He doesn’t pay for insurance. He doesn’t buy fuel. He doesn’t pay for maintenance and repairs. He doesn’t use paid parking. He doesn’t cause major accidents. He doesn’t require multi-lane highways. He doesn’t become obese.”

“Healthy people are neither necessary nor useful to the economy. They don’t buy medicine. They don’t go to hospitals or doctors. They add nothing to the country’s GDP.”

“On the contrary, each new McDonald’s outlet creates at least 30 jobs, in fact it provides employment for 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 expert dieticians and nutritionists, in addition, of course, to the people who work in the outlet itself.”

PS: Walking is even worse. People who walk don’t even buy a bike.

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