Woden Seniors Inc

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

Apr
12

By

Fortnightly News 12/4/2024

Category: Fortnightly News

Issue 07 of 2024     

12 April 2024

DATES TO REMEMBER

Thursday 25th April – ANZAC Day Public Holiday.  Club will be closed.

Friday 26th April – David Smith MP Seniors Forum 1.0-3.00pm – register for this using the link below:

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https://events.humanitix.com/2024-bean-retirees-and-seniors-forum-woden

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THANK YOU .. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU

We held our ninth BIG Book Fair on the weekend of 5,6 and 7 April. It was a resounding success which raised more than $34,000 for the Club. This was our best result so far!!

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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 building maintenance.

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The wet weather didn’t deter the keen early crowd on Friday.

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Special thanks go to:

• The fantastic members of the teams who 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, Cindy, Janet K, Janet R, Fay, Sue, Tom, Millie, 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. Ken and Renato who filled in for the injured Doug during the Book Fair.
• The car park attendants especially David Slaney who did it each day, despite the weather, and Grahame, Roger, and Maruta who helped on the busy Friday morning.
• The welcome team led by Jennifer Pratten and Pauline who collected the entry donations and handed out information.

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Better Books area                                                                Games, CDs and DVDs ready to go

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More special thanks to:

• Catharine Masters who did the bookkeeping.
• Don Puttick, Jenny Gregory, Maureen Bourne, 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.
• Diana, Bill, and Judy, who managed Hall 2, and all their helpers.
• Sue, Saana, and Maddie 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.
• The Marist students and their teacher Nicholas Lansdown-Weir who helped pack up.
• The Canberra College students who helped with setting up and packing up.
• The Stromlo High students who helped in the Children’s area and with the signs.
• The members and their friends who helped set up on Thursday 4 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 bookmarks, and display of paintings.
• The catering team who donated the food for the volunteers.
• 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.
• President Jenny for her sound guidance and willing assistance.
• Sue Allen and her team who managed the building and surrounds throughout the Book Fair.
• Sandra Gray for the publicity.
• 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.

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Hall 2 – non-fiction area was busy                                             WOW is right!

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THANK YOU .. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU

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During the past year we continued to reach out to the community, resulting in many benefits for those concerned. We donated surplus books to the Braidwood Book Fair; 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 and we donated regularly to the Hughes Community Centre Book Exchange as well as street libraries.

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                                             Workers at work!!

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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 2025 Book Fair even better and let us know. We are always looking for new volunteers, who can bring new ideas. Some of us have been doing this for ten years and surprisingly we are not getting younger!

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Judy Henderson

Coordinator

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THANK YOU .. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU.. THANK YOU

… And from me – thanks Judy for your outstanding leadership of the Book Fair Team.

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Jenny Gregory                                                                        

President                         

Woden Seniors Inc.

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

Email: president@wodenseniors.org.au        

www.wodenseniors.org.au 

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A little poetry to round off todays message:

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Ladies and gentlemen, skinny and stout

I’ll tell you a tale I know nothing about

Admission is free so pay at the door

Now pull up a chair and sit on the floor.

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One bright day in the middle of the night

Two dead boys got up to fight

Back to back they faced each other

Drew their swords and shot each other.

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A blind man came to watch fair play

A mute man came to shout “Hooray!”

A deaf policeman heard the noise and

Came and killed those two dead boys.

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He lived on the corner in the middle of the block

In a two-story house on a vacant lot

A man with no legs came walking by

And kicked the lawman in his thigh.

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He crashed through the wall without a sound

Into a dry creek bed and suddenly drowned

The long back hearse came to cart him away

But he ran for his life and is still gone today.

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I watched from the corner of the  big round table

The only eyewitness to facts of my fable

But if you doubt my lies are true

Just ask the blind man, he saw it too.

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