SENIORS Week 2017, with the theme of A Queensland for All Ages, is rolling out across the state right now and runs until this Sunday, August 27.
Every year in the Redlands, our community’s older residents embrace Seniors Week and, with the spotlight shining on them, put on a program of activities that highlight the positive aspects of being a tad older.
Seniors Week is a time for celebrating the immensely valuable contribution seniors make to our communities and is an opportunity for Queenslanders everywhere to reflect on the things older people bring to the world.
Volunteering is one of them.
A large number of volunteers are older, retired people and if they all suddenly decided to withdraw their unpaid contributions, many community services would simply cease to function.
Think, for example, of a Redlands without Meals on Wheels, Circle of Men, Redland District Committee on the Ageing, and the Donald Simpson Community Centre, to name only a few organisations.
Older people are also keepers of the kind of wisdom that only life experience can bring, just as they bring grandparents to a society.
Having raised their own families, many grandparents are now raising their grandchildren for various reasons, including the need for parents to be working or the breakdown of family units.
Grandparents everywhere have an opportunity to bestow upon their grandchildren an unconditional love and understanding, from which young people growing up in today’s frenetically paced world can only benefit.
If you’re an older resident engaged in enjoying Seniors Week 2017, Redland City Bulletin acknowledges your contribution to helping create a Queensland for all ages.
If you’re a younger resident wondering what all the sudden activity is among the grey-haired set, wander over and say g’day.
If you are lucky, you may hear a tale of how football was played in the 1950s or how what is now called ‘googling’ was once an act of research that involved many slender drawers of library cards.
If, however, you are a politician attending a Seniors Week event, please remember that Redlands has an ageing population.
If this community is to continue serving its residents well, and create a Redlands for all ages, then ongoing funding of programs and facilities for older people is vital.