Woden Seniors Inc

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

By

Fortnightly News 13/10/2017

Woden Senior Concert and the Club 45th Anniversary Day!

Sunday 22 October at 1.30 pm

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

We’re on the Way

To Showcase our Club’s 45th Anniversary Day!

To all the Members of the Woden Seniors’ Club, we extend our Special Invitation for your attendance on the Sunday 22nd October, 2017, at 1.30pm for the 45th Anniversary of our Club.

The Woden Seniors’ Club will open its doors at 1.00pm for Members and Visitors to sign the 45th Anniversary Book, to collect the Concert Programme, to place any donations of ‘Afternoon Tea Goodies’ in the dining area of Hall 1 and to kindly donate a gold coin for the afternoon’s entertainment.

The Anniversary Celebrations will officially begin at 1.30pm, with our President, Mr Paul McGlew, who will welcome all the Guests and will also inform folk of the afternoon’s special focus – to Showcase the Talents and Skills of our Club’s Seniors.

This will be in two areas:

Hall 1: To provide the Entertainment by our Talented Performers –

Recorder Group (with Margaret Wright),

Woden Senior Singers (with Gail Giuliano),

Solo Singer (Gail Giuliano),

Tuesday Bridge Group Singers,

Cha Cha Dancing (Ian Vickers and Carla Di Franco)

Argentine Tango (Paul McGlew and Magdalena Mayer)

Hall 2 and the Anne Murray Room: To display the Artistic Skills of the Water Colour Group (with Anne Baker),

The Beading Group (with Jennifer Pratten),

The Stitchers Group (with Doreen McGregor),

At the Concert’s conclusion, the Anniversary Cake will be officially cut by our President, to be accompanied by “Happy Birthday” singing and three cheers and Afternnon Tea will then be served.

Looking forward to celebrating the special occasion with our Members and Guests!

Do You Know?

Our Club, a club for the elderly in the suburbs of Woden, was started as early as 1971 when a small group of people met in one of the rooms at the Church of Christ in Marrawah Street, Lyons. We don’t know who convened the meeting, but it may have been started by the Women’s Group of the Church Guild. A member of the Guild and President of the Australian Council of Women, Mrs Helen Cunningham was present and organised the first meeting of the new club. She became its Patron and a Life Member. The Club called itself “The Southside Over 50’s” or simply “The Over 50’s”. It met informally for about a year, chatting or playing cards for two or three hours on a Monday afternoon. I wonder if they played Bridge?

The “Over 50’s Club” was formalised on 16th October 1972. The first Committee meeting was held on 23rd October 1972. Elected were:-

President Mr Harry Link

Secretary Mrs Marjory Walker

Treasurer Mrs Ivy Smart

Publicity Officer Mr Tom Ingram

Committee Mr Davidson, Mrs Ireland, Mrs Link, Mrs May,

Mrs Munton, Mrs A. Smith, Mrs Whitfield.

The annual subscription was set at 50 cents! The first event was a Beetle Drive!

We know very little about the people who started our Club. We want to know more about them and the beginning of Our Club. Can you help us? Is there any member who can tell us something about them? or can tell us any story of the Club? If you can, would you please let Polly know. We would appreciate any help to tell our early story.

iPad Course – Brush Up on Email

Judy will be running a new iPad course for those who wish to improve their knowledge of how to use the Email app on the iPad.

It will be over two sessions from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm on Thursday 2 November and Thursday 9 November. There are six places. If you are interested phone the office.

The course will cover the following:

  • Overview of mailboxes
  • CC and BCC
  • Reply, Reply All, Forward a message
  • Saving draft messages
  • Sending and saving attachments to messages eg photos, videos, documents
  • Saving addresses
  • Updating contacts
  • Adding a new mailbox

Supervised Bridge – Mondays 1:30-3:30pm

These sessions will commence on 9th October. There will be a short lesson on a specific topic followed by a relaxed duplicate session where assistance may be sought.

Book Fair 2018

The Committee has decided to hold another Book Fair. The 2018 Book Fair will be from 10 to 12 August.

Preparations are already underway. You may have noticed that all the boxes of fiction that were stacked up in the Dining Area have been put away for the 2018 Book Fair. Before they were put away they were re-sorted and re-packed by Judy B, Agatha and Jocelyn – a big task done by these amazing and hard working women.

We will need more volunteers to help prepare the books as the donations come in. So watch this space if you are interested.

Upcoming Club Events

The following is a list of social events planned for the Club:

Sunday 22 October 2017 – Celebration of the Club’s 45th Anniversary with our Seniors Concert which was so popular last year

Tuesday 7 November 2017 – Melbourne Cup PARTY!!

Friday 10 November 2017 – Ms Estelle Muspratt will talk on War Graves, etc, at 10.00-12.00 in the Anne Murray Room. This will be followed by a break for coffee/tea and cake, then there will be time for questions.

December – Christmas Celebration (more information coming).

Scrabble

A Scrabble group meets on Tuesday afternoons from 2.00 – 4.00 pm in the Anne Murray Room. Drop in if you feel like a game.

Woden Seniors Book Club

The Woden Seniors Book Club meets in the Anne Murray Room at 10:30am on the last Friday of the month, the next meeting due on Friday 29 September will discuss ‘Owls Do Cry’ by Janet Frame. Newcomers always welcome.

Friday 27 October: The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do;

Friday 24 November: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

And there will be lunch of the group in December.

Craft Show

Where: Weston Creek Uniting Church, Parkinson Street Weston

When: Friday 27 October 2017: 10 am – 8.30 pm

Saturday 28 October 2017: 10 am – 4.00 pm

Morning and Afternoon Teas

Coffee and Dessert, Friday night

Admission by donation.

ACT Waste Management website

This is a very useful website for information on household and recycling collections. It has an amazing A-Z of recycling for how to dispose of anything safely.

Better Suburbs Survey

Each day Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate delivers a range of city services to the Canberra community, including:

  • mow almost 30,000 hectares of grass in suburban areas and along arterial roads
  • maintain around 2,500 kilometres of footpaths
  • resurface more than 1 million square metres of road and
  • make more than 6.8 million household rubbish collections and 3.4 million household recycling collections.

The ACT Government is seeking your feedback on the provision of city services and prioritising their future service delivery.

Take five minutes out, go to www.yoursay.act.gov.au/bettersuburbs and have your say in an online discussion or complete a brief survey until 1 November, 2017. Then tell your friends and family to do the same.

Your feedback will help develop a Better Suburbs Statement which will provide a vision and priorities to guide the delivery of city services into the future.

Rotary Club of Canberra Free Seniors Concert – “Que Sera Sera”

When: Sunday 12th November 2017,

2.00 – 4.00 pm (seated by 1.50 pm)

Where: At the Albert Hall, Commonwealth Avenue

The concert is organised by Sing Australia. Transport is available if required. Afternoon tea will be served. Bookings through COTA on 6282 3777

Dementia Research Opportunity!!

Do you experience memory problems? Do you want help to live a more active and healthy lifestyle?

The Centre of Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing (CRAHW) at the Australian National University is trialling a new program targeting people who experience cognitive problems in day-to-day life (e.g. problems with memory or concentration etc.) This program will provide knowledge on ageing, memory problems and dementia, and the importance of exercise, diet and keeping your mind active to decrease dementia risk.

We are seeking adults aged 65+ who:

-Experience memory problems in day-to-day life
-Are not participating in an ongoing lifestyle change programs

-Have internet access and computer at home and fluent English language skills

-Without a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia

-Without major mental or physical problems which would prevent you from taking part in a lifestyle change program

-Prepared to make lifestyle changes to improve your health

If you would like more information or would like to take part in the research, please email: bblmci or call Mitchell McMaster on (02) 6125 6351.

SPIRAL 2017 PROGRAM

Spiral is a group of senior citizens (60+ to 90+) that meet each Thursday morning, they are non-denominational with people from varied backgrounds, occupations and origins. The Spiral Photo Album gives a good sense of who they are and what they do. There are no fees but a $1 contribution to costs is requested. Spiral is seeking new members, helpers and guest speakers. You are not obliged to come every week and you can come for the talk and/or the morning tea. Any questions or suggestions please contact me or one of the other people on the list below.

Location: The Uniting Church in Gillies Street, Curtin.

When: Thursday morning.

Time: Speakers will commence at 10.10 and most will join us for the morning tea that will follow.

On September 7, many people were moved by author Andy Millar speaking about his book Lost At Sea: Found At Fukushima. This tells the story of the sinking of a British tramp steamer by the German navy. One of the survivors rescued and interned on a succession of prison ships, before being handed over to the Japanese was Second Mate David Millar. Badly wounded, David spent the rest of the war as a POW in a camp at Fukushima, north of Tokyo. Some people asked where they could get a copy of the book. Answer: this gripping and amazing story is now available at Paperchain Manuka at $24.99.

October 19 URoC – the Ukulele Republic of Canberra

URoC has performed for us before and we are always happy to welcome them back. Surely, everyone loves the uke. Now celebrating ten years in the business, they will be bringing a new repertoire performed for the Floriade festival.

Spiral contacts.

Brett Yeats – phone 6281 7684 or email address is yeatsb

Mavis Angove – 0438 460 813 or 6292 1437 or mavisangove

Sara York – 0419 587 578 or sarawyork

Sue Driscoll – 0418 697 240 or suedrisc

Angelika Dunker – 6281 4023 or angelika.dunker

Justice of the Peace

You will find Maureen in Club on Tuesdays & Thursdays between 10.30am and 2pm for Justice of the Peace matters.