Thanks to our Class Leaders who ran sessions as part of October’s Whitehorse Seniors Festival. Back in August when we discussed how U3A Nunawading might participate, we took the decision to offer escorted tours of our activities at the Hub, as well as online classes via Zoom, in the expectation that we may well be in lockdown.
As it turned out, the four tours of the Hub had to be cancelled but our Leaders were able to proceed with four out of our five advertised classes, with our own members making up the majority of participants.
Bookings from the public were disappointingly low so members of the regular classes run by the Leaders were invited to join in the following sessions:
- Line Dancing with Lan Tiet ended up as a virtual line dancing party for more than 40 people from our U3A Experienced Line Dancing class and a few friends. The session was captured on video, which you can watch below.
- Helen Smith’s class on How to spot a Scam had 24 attendees, with four from the community and the remainder being U3A Members. Jaime Edge, Whitehorse Council’s Community Development Officer – Healthy Ageing, dropped into the Zoom session to say hello and to get a better understanding of U3A activities.
- Paulina Chong, Betsy Gumma and Chris Winterbine worked together to run a highly successful Dance Fitness Fun class which had 56 participants. Again, only a handful were not U3A Members but feedback was that everyone had a great time.
- Wayne Henry’s Smartphone as a Useful Travel Companion also went ahead and, although only half of the four non-members who booked in turned up, the session went well and the participants were most appreciative of Wayne’s expertise.
As Lesley Sinfield’s Tai Chi QiGong class had so few bookings from the community and Lesley was in the process of moving house, it was agreed that this class would be cancelled.
Whitehorse Council has thanked U3A Nunawading and our Class Leaders for our participation this year under such difficult circumstances and for our willingness to provide opportunities to participate for our older community.