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The Warrnambool Seniors Festival was officially launched yesterday.
The festival runs throughout October and includes over 30 free or low-cost events to encourage people to try new things and enjoy themselves in retirement.
The centrepiece of the launch was the recognition of our three local nominees for the Victorian Senior of the Year Awards: Andrew Suggett, Heather Ryan and Philip Shaw.
Warrnambool Mayor Debbie Arnott congratulated all three nominees and thanked them for their service to the community.
“The Seniors Festival is all about highlighting the benefits of active ageing, and all three nominees are superb examples of this,” she said.
“If you are active and involved in the community, not only are you helping those around you, but it’s just about the best thing you can do for yourself.
Unfortunately, loneliness can be a big issue for older people in our community, and the Victorian Senior of the Year Awards, as well as the Seniors Festival, aim to encourage more people to put themselves out there, maybe try something new, and do the things that make them truly happy.”
After moving back to Warrnambool in 2016, Heather Ryan joined the Warrnambool Community Garden. She didn’t have a lot of previous gardening experience, but over the past seven years she has grown her knowledge and now teaches others.
She especially enjoys sharing her knowledge with children. Among many achievements at the Garden itself, she also led the establishment of a kitchen garden at Warrnambool East Primary School and started a community garden club for local primary school students.
She has also documented her gardening journey on Instagram, attracting over 2500 followers worldwide.
“Learn love and live,” she said.
“In retirement, ageing is a time to develop new interests and expand on those you may not have had time to pursue before. Gardening was one of those interests.
“My grandfather was a teacher and a gardener... he wanted me to follow in his footsteps and become a teacher, and maybe after all this time, you could call me a late bloomer, with a love of both education and gardening.
“Ageing with attitude is having a positive view to life after retirement. Living the second part of your life with happiness and inner peace.”
Philip Shaw is an active member of no less than six community musical groups, ranging from Cantori, a classically astute a capella group, to the Tin Shed Singers, a group where many of the members have never sung with other people before.
He brings his unique brand of fun, quirkiness, generosity and musical talent to create one-of-a-kind collaborations that enrich lives - for those who hear the performances, but just as much for the groups’ members. Many of the members of his groups are of retirement age, and the benefits they derive from their participation – the mental health boost, the comradely, the friendship, the feeling of belonging, are life changing.
“I am a very junior senior on a journey into a new world,” he said.
“This is a rite of passage that I think is as important and significant an an adolescent’s transition from childhood to adulthood.
“On the cusp of this, I’m aware of the challenges and possibilities in front of me and they can be quite daunting.
“One of the things I think all of us seniors can offer is lived experience.
“Seniors are the custodians of knowledge and perhaps, sometimes even wisdom.
“And the question that keeps coming to me is, how can we share some of the wisdom we’ve gleaned with those who are coming up and making the changes in the world today?
“I’ll let you know when I’ve got this sorted, but I’m onto it at the moment.”
Andrew Suggett joined the Warrnambool Rotary Club in 1980 and became one of the charter members of the new Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak when it was formed in 1998.
But it was in the year 2000 when Andrew’s life changed. Forced into early retirement following his diagnosis of Parkinson’s, he maintained his infectiously positive outlook on life and resolved not only to do everything he could to improve his own quality of life, but to do what he could to help others.
As well as maintaining his involvement in Rotary, we was Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak President from 2000 until 2001 and in 2006 he became District Governor, a role that saw him travel to Rotary Clubs from Geelong to Mt Gambier.
He was the inaugural chair of the Warrnambool Rotary House project – which saw the creation of a 12 unit facility for the families and carers of South West Healthcare patients. Rotary House celebrates its 10 year anniversary this year.
Andrew has been the President of the Warrnambool Parkinson’s Support Group since 2009 where he coordinates the monthly meetings and he was also instrumental in the creation of other Parkinson’s subgroups including Painting with Parkinson’s, ParkinSong and exercise for Parkinson’s activities and initiatives.
“There’s nothing more important to me than family, friends and community,” he said.
“Following my forced retirement in 2000 through a diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease, many doors and opportunities opened and allowed me to become further involved in a number of activities.
“I’m a great believer in the saying: you shouldn’t retire from, we should retire to. There are many opportunities in our community to assist people in need of support, and every project must be a partnership with those we wish to assist.”