Guest Speaker Past President Jim ‘SILP’ - Senior Independent Living Project’
Jim gave a brief history as to why he had done the research (club wanted to invest in a larger project, relevant to Yea that would make a difference). He has spent six months exploring options and had several meetings with the Council and the CEO.Need flat land, close to town with town water, sewerage etc and possibly rezoning of land would be needed.
Then a discussion about what is a retirement village and it is clearly not aged care!
Jim had explored three places and scenarios with lots of different options, including retirement villages that allow transition into aged care and nursing home facilities.
The only option thought viable to Yea was the one at Mansfield, which is solely independent living. A not for profit where people enter into a life time lease costing about $350,000. Independent two or three bedroom homes, with a community hub and a management fee that is set as a percentage of the pension.
Realistically the Mansfield model is the only viable one for the club to consider. Jim’s talk generated lots of questions and he is going to explore it further and it will most likely be discussed at a club assemble soon.
Thanks Jim for all your careful and thorough research—a challenging area to understand.
Past President Ken stepped into the familiar chair and welcomed our RYLA student Alessio Rigoli together with his father Joe and younger brother Lorenzo. Also welcomed were Yea Hospital Board members Natalie Wischer and Gary Pollard.
Chair: Patty Sichlau introduced Alessio Rigoli, who was sponsored by the club to complete RYLA last November
Alessio actually applied to do RYLA after seeing information about it on FB and the RC of Yea sponsored him after our two candidates dropped out. Alessio gave an informative talk about his week saying that he didn't rea
lly know what to expect but a friend had completed it the previous year and had spiked Alessio’s interest. He said the theme for the week was ‘Challenge by Choice’ which meant lots of personal challenges that participants could undertake, by choice. He went on to explain that his big challenge was maintaining eye contact. It started at the beginning of the week at 5 mins and grew to be 15 mins by weeks end.
lly know what to expect but a friend had completed it the previous year and had spiked Alessio’s interest. He said the theme for the week was ‘Challenge by Choice’ which meant lots of personal challenges that participants could undertake, by choice. He went on to explain that his big challenge was maintaining eye contact. It started at the beginning of the week at 5 mins and grew to be 15 mins by weeks end.The whole group came together to achieve common goals, the main one being to organise a Rotary meeting for over 200 people. Trust, communication and teamwork were all involved.
Alessio finished by thanking the club for the opportunity to participate. He came away with a stronger sense of community and a much better understanding of Rotary. His words were—”I have grown significantly as a person and gained lots of confidence by participating in RYLA.”
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| Alessio Rigoli (middle), younger brother Lorenzo and father Joe | Two generations of Yea Pharmicists - David and Gary |
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| Natalie Wischer and Will DeCastella | Catering Crew - Flowerdale Primary School |