Senior Citizens' Club

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 29

Senior Citizens' Club

A new senior citizens’ club at St Martins opened on a bright and musical note yesterday at the Catholic Church Hall in Wilsons road.

Before the function ended the 100 persons present had joined in a lively round of community singing, watched an elderly couple do an impromptu exhibition of old-time waltz and heard the assistant parish priest (the Rev. D. Carey) sing two solos. The president of the South Christchurch Rotary Club (Mr T. H. McCombs), the Member j' of Parliament for Lyttelton (Mr N. E. Kirk), the chairman!

of the Aged People’s Welfare Council (Dr. H. R. Donald) and Cr. N. G. Pickering (representing the Mayor, Mr G. Manning) spoke at the opening The Christchurch South Rotary Club formed the senior citizens’ club at the request of church ministers in the district. Mr McCombs said his club would continue its assistance until it was well established and then hand it over to members. He said he hoped it would be the source of much enjoyment for elderly people in the area and recommended thatthose present encourage others Ito join. I Mr Kirk said it would do

for St. Martins what similar clubs had done in the Sumner and Lyttelton districts. He praised what he termed “the good community spirit prevailing in St. Martins.” Dr. Donald welcomed the club as a means of removing the tendency of people when they grew older to become more secluded. “One of the main aims of the club should be for the members to keep an eye on one another,” he said. It might be necessary to cajole some people to join, but the end result would be worth it.

Cr. Pickering said that if the club could help people to grow old gracefully, provide them with new friendships and

remove the loneliness of old age, it would have achieved a great deal. A spokesman for church ministers in the district (the Rev. E. Chapman) promised every help from his colleagues. The parish priest (the Rev. P. Brosnahan) said he was pleased his church was able to provide the meeting place for the club.

He spoke of “a tremendous show of charity” in the St. Martins area with people helping one another. The accent on the club's activities would be entertainment and companionship, and members would meet every week and arrange visits to clubs in other parts of Christchurch.