Cootamundra residents celebrate seniors week in style!!
The generation gap narrowed a little recently when students and older residents of Cootamundra came together to celebrate Seniors week 2025.
More than 20 students in Year 8 at Cootamundra High spent the morning with residents of Adina Care and members of the Cootamundra Meals on Wheels social support group, playing games, colouring in and chatting.
Rhonda Douglas, Acting Co-ordinator, Cootamundra Meals on Wheels, said it was fabulous to see the kids and adults spending quality time together.
"It was such a lovely morning. The kids interacted so well. Many of them taking the initiative to either start up a conversation or play a board game with someone they had never met before," Mrs Douglas said.
"You could literally see the expressions on the faces of the older clients change immediately as the young kids took the lead and actively engaged with them."
The theme of this years' Seniors week was 'A Time to Shine'.
Held annually, it provides a variety of opportunities for older people to get involved, stay active and connected to their community.
The local event was organised by Kerry Kostrubic from Meals on Wheels, Destini Hardy from Cootamundra Gundagai Regional Council and staff at Adina Care.
Mrs Douglas said the games and activities included bocce, quoites and bingo. With the kids seemingly getting as much from the experience as the older clients.
"There are lots of older people living in Cootamundra and surrounding areas who don't have close family living nearby. Events like this help show older people that there are people in their local community who care about the contribution they have made over their life," said Mrs Douglas.
A spokesperson from Adina Care said it was a great honour to hold the senior's festival at Adina Care.
"At Adina Care we strive to encourage and promote independence, inclusion, diversity and person centered activities to create opportunities to enrich their lives and have a lot of fun," they said.
Service returns to delivering meals 6 days a week
Meals on Wheels clients in Cootamundra are once again receiving fresh, hot meals 6 days a week, with the re-introduction of its Sunday Hot Meal Delivery service
During COVID all fresh meal deliveries ceased, with clients transitioning to frozen meals instead.
While the Monday to Friday fresh meal deliveries resumed in 2022, Service Co-ordinator Kerry Kostrubic said COVID continued to take its toll on our weekend service.
"We were really sad to see the Sunday delivery cease in 2020. It was so important to be able to offer our clients a hot meal almost every day of the week," she said.
But being able to re-instate the Sunday service has been amazing and is a testament to the strength of the local service, she added.
"As soon as we proposed resuming the Sunday service, we contacted all of our previous volunteers."
"Almost all of them answered the call. With individuals as well as groups like the Lions Club and Girl Guides donating their time to the service."
Mrs Kostrubic added there is great support for the service from the client base as well.
"The numbers do fluctuate, depending on what is happening in the lives of our clients, but for the most part, we have at least 25 clients receiving a hot baked meal each Sunday."
All the meals are prepared by the kitchen staff at Adina Care and are transported by a network of volunteers.
"Meals on Wheels doesn't exist without the wonderful volunteers. Each and every day dozens of people give up their time to ensure our clients have a nutritious meal," Mrs Kostrubic said.
"But it's sometimes more than that. It's the friendly face, or conversation that they receive, that also means so much."
Mrs Kostrubic said having so many people give up their time not only on a weekday, but on a Sunday, is heartwarming.
"When our lives are often so busy, taking time out of their day to help others, makes us so grateful that we live in a town like Cootamundra," said Mrs Kostrubic.
NSW Meals on Wheels - Reducing our environmental footprint
NSW Meals on Wheels and the EPA
Meals on Wheels NSW is being supported by the NSW Government to deliver grassroots community-led actions to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics and change our habits.
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