By Tyler Wright
On Saturday 1 October at Olinda Community House, with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ by the Dandenong’s Singularity Choir, Olinda Probus Club will be able to celebrate its first in-person National Probus Day with the community.
The theme of this year’s National Probus Day is ‘Probus Provides Unlimited Possibilities in Retirement,’ as the 65 members of the Olinda Probus Club aim to make the most out of their semi and full retirement with a theatre group, card group, movie group, garden group and a morning coffee group among other activities.
“One of the brilliant things about Probus groups is that you get a network of interesting friends who you can make contact with,” Olinda Probus Club secretary Helen Holliday said.
“We have so many retired teachers and nurses in our group, so it’s quite a fascinating group of people.”
The inaugural Probus Day was introduced in 2020 and coincides with the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, where clubs across Australia and New Zealand gather to celebrate.
“It is so important for people particularly when they’re retired and as we’re ageing, to have intellectual and mental stimulation, to learn new things, to get out and be sociable just to meet people,” Helen said.
“There are enormous benefits for older folk who are participating in different social activities, and that’s one of the major things that Probus offers.”
All community members are welcome at Olinda Community House for the 1 October celebrations with a ‘traditional country afternoon tea’ on offer after Singularity Choir’s performance at 2pm.
Olinda Probus Club will also be looking to recruit 10 new members on the day, to reach its capacity of 75 members.
“We do expect that members will arrive at least 50 per cent of the monthly meetings that we have during the year and they will participate in in some of the groups,” Helen said.
“We do hope that if somebody’s really interested in joining Probus, we’d like them to come to maybe one or two monthly meetings and then put in their membership application to join.
One Probus Club might not suit somebody, but might fit somebody…sometimes people just need to come to different progress clubs to see how well they think they fit in.”
Helen said Olinda Probus Club has tried to stick to regular guest speakers at monthly meetings and occasional trips out of the Dandenongs to locations like Queenscliff, and has maintained member numbers despite the transition to zoom meeting throughout pandemic restrictions.
“[Zoom meetings] were obviously not as well attended as they would have been if we’d had real real life meetings, but we’ve made lots of phone calls to members and tried to keep in touch with our membership as much as we can,” Helen said.
“We were a little bit concerned that maybe people might have some sort of change their attitudes towards going out after Covid, but we’ve found that the members have been quite happy and they’ve just bounced back and we’re back in action again,” she said.
The International Probus Day concert afternoon will be held at 79-81 Olinda-Monbulk Rd, Olinda, next to the swimming pool.
Anyone interested in joining the Olinda Probus Club or attending a meeting is advised to contact membership officer Carolyn Clark on 0455 830 000 or secretary Helen Holliday on 0438 113 122.
You can find more information on the Olinda Probus Club website, https://olindaprobus.com/ or visit the Olinda Probus Club Facebook page.
