Fortnightly News 19/3/2021
Free digital help for Seniors
COTA ACT offers free one-on-one teaching sessions to help seniors get connected online and to learn more about their phone or other device such as a laptop or tablet.
So if you would like support to use a new smartphone, to use the Check in CBR app, to access emails, to search the Internet, or to try video chat with distant friends or family COTA ACT can help you.
Sessions currently take place on Wednesday and Friday mornings at the Hughes Community Centre and can be booked by phoning 6282 3777.
Bookcase
We are looking for a bookcase to use in the Club foyer for selling books. If you have a spare bookcase please let Polly know.
Wine boxes for the Book Fair
Thanks to those who have already brought in wine boxes for packing books. We especially like the larger six-bottle size boxes. Just leave them in the book sorting area in the veranda. Please keep them coming in!
Woden Seniors Exercise Classes
Gentle Exercise Class – Tuesdays 9.30 – 10.30 am
Ever Active Class – Wednesdays 8.30 – 9.30 am
Seated Exercise – Mondays – 12.00 – 1.30 pm
Tai Chi – Thursdays 2.00 – 3.15 pm
Bridge
Tuesday Bridge and Saturday Bridge have resumed. Tuesday at 10.00 am & Saturday at 1.00 pm. Both days are in Hall 2.
COTA ACT community art and photographic competition
Check In CBR App
The ACT Government has mandated that the Check In CBR App be used by all venues from 6 March 2021. This means that members entering the Club must use the Check In CBR App.
The ‘Check In CBR’ app is a contactless, secure and convenient way for members to sign into the Woden Seniors Club.
The app helps protect the community by assisting with faster contact tracing. The app enables individuals to check-in to venues and have this data stored securely with ACT Health in the event contact tracing is needed due to a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the community.
Use of the app will help the ACT Health contact tracing team quickly identify and assist anyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19.
During the COVID-19 public health emergency non-essential businesses and undertakings are required by law to ask for the first name and phone number of people who attend their venue. Use of this app enables businesses to comply with these laws.
Download the App
5 step process to download and use the app:
(Internet connection and compatible phone or tablet device required)
- Download the Check In CBR App from Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
- Register your details (required for the first time only).
- At participating venues, open the app, select ‘Check In Now’ and hover your smartphone over the displayed QR code.
- Add in any additional people – those who are with you without their own device or app.
- When the check-in is complete, show venue staff the app successful check in screen.
Spiral NewsHello everyone,
I have to begin with sad news. My mother Betty passed away on Sunday night. Mum lived in Curtin from 1966 until she moved into John Flynn House at St Andrews in Hughes last March. She was involved in Spiral for more than 30 years. Her funeral will be on Monday at 3 pm at Norwood Park Crematorium and then we will have a wake at St James in Curtin afterwards. Mum was 95, had a rich and full life. She was alert to the end and died peacefully. My wife and I were holding her hands as she took her last breath.
It’s a shame that Mum couldn’t hear tomorrow’s guest speaker. Mum was born in 1925 and lived in London through the blitz so she would have been interested to hear about Jim’s wartime experience and memories from northern England.
Life goes on for those of us who are left. We started Spiral with a bang last Thursday. There were 50 or 51 of us there – I’m not sure if I counted our guest speaker David who got us off to such a good start. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and a surprising number of new faces. I think we dealt with the social distancing pretty well and we will learn from that experience so future morning teas should be a bit smoother.
There is still a requirement for you to register your attendance. I collected many names last week and before and more have phoned or emailed me this week. As of last Saturday, there is now a requirement for everyone to be registered via the Check In CBR app. You can read about it and download it (if you haven’t already) here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.act.health.checkin&hl=en_AU&gl=US
Don’t worry if you don’t have it – we can add you to our phones.
Here is what we have for the rest of this month.
March 25 The Canberra Mandolin Orchestra
Formed in 2003, the CMO brings together players of mandolin, mandola, mandocello, guitar and bass. It keeps alive the rich tradition of the mandolin groups that emerged in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. The CMO’s repertoire is very wide showing the versatility of its musicians. They have played in the High Court, at Government House and at the National Folk Festival and we have been privileged to have them perform for us many times.
Spiral is a community group which has been meeting for morning teas in Curtin for over fifty years. We aren’t incorporated, we don’t have committees or membership forms or joining fees. You can come to any meeting that interests you. We don’t even have a website! We meet in the hall at the St James Uniting Church at 40 Gillies Street, Curtin between 10.00 am and noon every Thursday. There is no religious nature to our meetings and our members come from varied backgrounds, occupations and origins. We are mostly retired, aged from our 60s to our 90s but we won’t turn you away if you are younger or older. We ask you to arrive by 10.00 am so that we can start our ‘entertainment’ as soon as possible after that. The entertainment is either a guest speaker, sometimes in a conversation format, or a musical performance. We aim to serve a fresh, mainly home-made, morning tea at 11.00 (sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later) and we aim to finish at midday.
We welcome new faces and I ask you to share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested. If you no longer want to receive these newsletters please let me know. If you have asked me to remove you from the list and I haven’t done that yet then please remind me. (I apologise, I have been busy).
Please preregister by emailing Brett at yeatsb@iinet.net.au or phoning 0406 37 9119 or emailing Sara at sarawyork@gmail.com or phoning 0419 587 578. You can also contact us if you have any questions about anything to do with this newsletter.
Best wishes,
Brett, on behalf of all of us at Spiral.