Hilltops Seniors Expo Success

Have you heard of the NSW Seniors Festival? Running from the 23rd of March to the 3rd April of 2022, the NSW Senior’s Festival is the largest festival for seniors in the Southern Hemisphere, reaching up to 500,000 seniors each year.

Presented by the Department of Communities & Justice, the festival is designed to celebrate the role seniors play and the contributions they make to the NSW community.

This year’s festival theme was “It’s Time to Reconnect!”, and the Hilltops Seniors Expo provided the perfect vehicle to do just that. The Hilltops Council sponsored the Hilltops Seniors Expo, which was held at the Town Hall in Young on Thursday 31st of March. Community transport buses were provided to residents from Boorowa, Harden and surrounds enabling broader participation.

The Expo was opened by Hilltops Mayor, Margaret Roles, who, after delivering an Acknowledgement of Country, went on to thank the organisers, stall holders, and participants.

“This Seniors Festival gives us the time to reconnect, especially after the time we’ve been through with isolation or semi-isolation with the COVID pandemic.”

“We are social animals and it’s a very important part of our lives that we connect with each other, and that as a community we also connect.”

“I’d like to thank you for all the work that you do to make Hilltops such a beautiful place to live. Without our seniors, our voluntary workers, we’d be much poorer. I often talk about the social capital we have here in Hilltops, and all of you are part of that social capital. On behalf of Hilltops, I thank you all.”

“We are also lucky that in Hilltops we have a number of services that support seniors as we go about our daily lives, and care for us when we need that care. The combination of public, private and allied health providers, I thank them all.”

“I also thank all those groups that provide services, all the people who volunteer and run those groups that contribute to our health and wellbeing and joy of living in this, our beautiful Hilltops. So, we are very fortunate to have all those organisations that take care of seniors,” Ms Roles said.

At the conclusion of the opening, Val and her team from Tai Chi gave the audience a demonstration of Tai Chi used to help those with arthritis. The next Tai Chi class will start on the 28th of April 2022, from 9am-10am at the room behind the Southern Cross Cinema.

Stallholders were many and various and included:

• Voluntary community organisations: Lions Young Branch, The Girl Guides, Lambing Flat Regional Branch (Fellowship of Writers), Hilltops Choir, Aqua Exercise, Young & District Family History Group and Tai Chi.

• Health organisations: Dementia Australia, The Health Studio (Young), Flexible Care Services Inc (Murrumburrah Harden), Wellways (mental health services), Meal on Wheels (Young), Community Transport Service, Mercy Care (Young).

• Legal services: Seniors Rights Service and Gordon, Garling, Moffitt.

Government services: Services NSW, myagedcare, SES and Hilltops Council Library Services.

Participants at the Expo were able to go around and talk to stall holders about the services they provide, sign up to get assistance or join community groups, and enjoy a tasty morning tea.

The general opinion was the Expo was a success.

IMAGE: The Girl Guides stall at the Expo.

• Topics:

• Seniors