Milton Ulladulla VIEW Club

November was our Club’s last meeting for 2024, featuring a Christmas theme. The seasonally decorated Centre created a festive atmosphere, thanks to the Dunn Lewis staff. Members and guests were offered drinks on arrival, and opportunities to win various prizes, including many wonderfully prepared Christmas hampers. In addition, homemade Christmas items were available. There were Christmas greeting cards, fruit cake slices, chocolate coconut balls, and many more.

It was time to celebrate and have fun with like-minded friends.  VIEW Clubs value friendship and help change the lives of young Australians in need through fundraising, volunteering, advocating and sponsoring disadvantaged students on The Smith Family's Learning for Life program. Our Club is proudly sponsoring three students on the program. 

During the meeting, President Denise welcomed our guests and thanked them for joining us to celebrate a year of VIEW! She also read out Christmas messages sent to our Club, and presented the birthday ladies with their special gifts, the hand knitted padded cloth hangers. Program Officers Wendy and Kerrie announced that the Club’s first outing in 2025 will be a picnic at Lake Conjola Park in mid-February. 

The highlight came when the Two Tenors Paul and Steve came to centre stage. Their beautiful voice and brilliant performance brought joy and many rounds of applause! Christmas carols, and nostalgic songs, enjoyed by all.

Photo shows Steve, Paul and President Denise,

Paul sang a very special tune for our honored guest Joyce, who turned 99 in October.  Joyce is a retired Member of the Club and enjoys our annual Christmas gatherings! The song When You and I Were Young, Maggie was dedicated to her, where the lyrics were changed from Maggie to Joyce. It sounded wonderful.

Photo shows Paul with a delighted Joyce.

Our guest speaker for October was Raelene Steele, a customer care specialist from Service NSW. Raelene’s talk was focused on NSW Government Savings Finder Program.

The program offers more than 70 rebates and vouchers in helping reduce the cost of living, and covers a wide range of rebates and vouchers, from energy (e.g. gas, water, and electricity) to health (e.g. IPTAAS).

By answering the tailored questions in Saving Finder online tool or booking a face-to-face appointment at Service NSW, you can find the rebates and vouchers relevant to you. Raelene’s talk was informative and well received by all the members.  Accompanying photo of Raelene and President Denise.

During the October meeting Program Officers Wendy and Kerrie who can be seen in the accompanying photo, confirmed that a gathering on Melbourne Cup Day had been booked.

Members can look forward to a good time enjoying friendship and having fun. Furthermore, a picnic is in the planning for next social event in January.

Birthday's were celebrated in October and President Denise announced that a former Member, Joyce, 99 years young is looking forward to joining us in November at the Christmas luncheon! Joyce has been an inspiration to us, and everyone is looking forward to a good catch up with her.

Next month, the Club will hold its last luncheon for 2024. It will be a Christmas celebration featuring the Two Tenors. 

During the August meeting President Denise paid tribute to a very special Club Member Jeni, who is moving out of this area. Jeni believes in the transforming power of education and voice of women, which are the core values for VIEW Clubs.

In 1998, Jeni joined VIEW while living in Sydney, and when her family moved to Ulladulla she joined our Club. Over her 26 years volunteering at VIEW Clubs, Jeni served many roles including Club delegate and NG02 Zone Councillor. 

On behalf of our Club, President Denise, thanked Jeni for her many years’ dedication and leadership. We will miss her and wish her the very best for her next adventure. 

Our guest speakers for August were Melanie Tull and Nicole Bunnet from Australian Unity. They spoke of the government funded My Aged Care, and what Australian Unity, as a service provider, can offer.  Among many other benefits, their Ulladulla based team can meet customers in person and help them navigating the system which, sometimes, could be frustrating. It was an informative talk, and well received by Members.

Members are looking forward to 23rd September, for the upcoming Area NG Gala at Dunn Lewis Centre.

Our Club’s next meeting will be on 24th October 2024, with guest speaker is Raylene Steele from Services NSW. 

Members enjoyed the Christmas in July celebration, and one of the traditions is to donate to the Giving Tree, which contributes to the crucial funding of The Smith Family programs, providing school essentials such as uniforms, books, laptops and the internet service. The Club sponsors three students on the Learning for Life program, and Members are proud that their financial support offers a chance of a better tomorrow for students.

During the meeting, Members were reminded to register for the NG Area Gala which will be held on 23rd September at Dunn Lewis Centre. It will be a day to celebrate VIEW, a day of fun, frivolity, friendship and community.

As it has been for the past few years, Nicky’s Bagz’n’Bitz joined us on this special day. Not only did Nicky’s team offer a shopping opportunity, but they also raised awareness of RFID safe, which was highly appreciated by all members. Nicky has always been generous to our Giving Tree fund raising and kindly made a donation again. 

Two of our hard working Members celebrated their birthday's in July; Wendy and Denise can be seen in the accompanying photo.

A very special Thank You goes to the staff at the Dunn Lewis Centre, as Members appreciated all their efforts in creating the Christmas themed luncheon. From the ornament decorated tables to the traditional delicious Christmas lunch of chicken, ham, and pudding, they provided the touch of Christmas for our July gathering.

The Club’s next meeting will be on 22nd August 2024. Our guest speaker from Australian Unity will talk about My Aged Care. Any women wishing to know more about the Club are welcome to contact Cherrie on 0419 101 682.  

Debbie Lickley from Yumaro Nursery & Garden Centre, was our inspiring guest speaker for June.  Debbie is passionate about her work at Yumaro, where serving people with disability's is at the heart of its mission. As a manager with a horticulture background, Debbie encourages and guides her team to use their creative hands to nurse and grow healthy plants. She identifies and values the hidden talents from her team members while watching them getting their hands dirty under the sun.  Debbie described her workplace as beautiful chaos, where she has witnessed some shy and cheeky team members grow into independent, kind and happy individuals. Yumaro welcomes the community to visit their centre and get to know who they are. 

After her talk, Debbie and her team offered a cup of succulents to each of our Club Members.  Many Members took the opportunity to have a good chat with the young ladies who are shown in the centre of the accompanying photo, before going home with encouraging thoughts.

In May Members were treated to an Ikebana (Japanese floral art) demonstration by Ikebana teacher, Aya Shibata. Aya explained that Ikebana means to give life to flowers. It is a way of life through art and harmony. Practicing Ikebana was quite therapeutic, bringing peace and tranquility.  Aya went on and made two elegant arranges of Ikebana. 

Photo shows Aya with President Denise in the middle of the two Ikebana arrangements. 

Our 33rd birthday held in April, was a day of celebration for the Club and for some outstanding achievements for two of the members, Lorraine and Ann, received their decade pins for 20 years and 10 years, respectively, service to VIEW

Photo shows President Denise (Centre) with Ann (Left) receiving her 10 year Pin and Lorraine (Right) receiving her 20 year Pin.

The theme for the birthday celebration was Aprons. 

Aprons of fun, of memorial significance (some nearly 100 years old), and of personality were all on show.  Thanks to the talented Dunn Lewis Team who decorated the birthday cake with our theme of Aprons.

Photo show a wall of aprons a memory of years gone-by.

Members and guests were entertained by The Carol and Glenda Country Music group, who can be seen in the photo with President Denise.

There were a lot of Easter baskets for not many Members at our March luncheon, so most were able to take home a ‘prize’. Thank you to Kerrie for organising the wonderful raffle prizes.  And due to the closeness of our luncheon to Easter, we did not have a guest speaker, however a fun afternoon was enjoyed with the disclosure of who you would like to be for a year’.  There were some comical and interesting answers!!

Photo shows just some of our March birthday ladies receiving their gift.

Members are reminded that our next luncheon will be our 33rd birthday with the theme Aprons, with an apron fashion parade!!  So, see you on Thursday 18th April.

There was a relatively small gathering attending the February luncheon meeting, but the atmosphere was as warm and friendly as it has ever been.  President Denise read the latest profiles from two of the students whom the Club sponsors through The Smith Family's Learning for Life program. One student wrote that she would like to be a registered nurse in the future and give back the care she had received while she was recovering from ill health. Another said that she did well at athletics at school, enjoyed the company of her friends, and helped her family at home. All students expressed their gratitude to their sponsor.

Members were pleased to hear that their sponsorship was able to encourage young people to thrive at school and in life. Their care and kindness are making a difference! The Smith Family's Learning for Life program advocates and sponsors disadvantaged Australian students.

Program Officers Wendy and Kerrie reported that the February BBQ was a success, and they have organised the next social event, which would be a movie and lunch in early April.

Our guest speaker were Member, Joan C, and Linda Odonnell from Aunty Jean’s Program. The Program provides health promotion and education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their partners. Locally, the Program participants meet every Tuesday at the Ulladulla Civic Centre for health checks, exercises, culturally appropriate information sharing and much more! For more information, please call the coordinator’s number at (02) 4424 6300.

Members recently enjoyed a lovely social BBQ Picnic at Burrill Lake Lions Park, organised by our busy Program Officers, Wendy and Kerrie. It was a great day out with the bonus of raising some funds to go towards funding our students.

Photo shows Jenny and Wendy hard at work.