By Eleanor Wilson
Some of the Casey community’s most social over 55s gathered at Berwick’s Rossmoyne Family Resource Centre on Thursday 21 July for the official post – renovation launch of the Casey U3A office.
The community group can now operate permanently from the site, with council giving it 24/7 access to the venue, from which it can hold a range of classes.
The group, which runs over 50 classes for retired residents in the City of Casey, spent over 30 years at Fiddler’s Green Retirement Village before making the move to Rossmoyne in Berwick earlier in the year.
Casey U3A president Trevor Walton said the club’s new home gave it great potential to provide for the tens of thousands of over 55s living in the municipality.
“There’s people right now thinking ’I wish I had something to do today’,” he said.
“Our challenge is to get those people and give them a reason to get up in the morning.
“We cover the entire area of the City of Casey, and within that area live 90,000 retirees – that’s 23 per cent of the population.“
The group offers classes from exercise and activity-based groups, to arts and crafts and academic classes.
The launch celebrations were attended by City of Casey chair of administrators Noelene Duff, Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan and Narre Warren South MP Gary Maas, who mingled with U3A members to find out what the group was all about.
“I’m a long-term advocate of U3A and I’m very familiar with the work U3A has done over the last 20 years I have been in government, so [U3A has] a supporter in me,” Ms Duff said.
Among the plethora of groups and classes held at U3A Casey is the Casey Sketchers group, who gather once a month to create sketches of the local area using pens, markers and watercolour paint.
“Everyone has their own style and we accept all styles and abilities, and we use very simple tools,” said group leader Kathleen Newman.
The group meets at Edrington Park, where they enjoy expanding their sketching skills and sharing new techniques.
