I COMPLETELY agree with the saying that "age is a state of mind". Because of that, I still don't really see myself as a senior citizen, despite celebrating my 72nd birthday last year.
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I enjoy working in my role as mayor of Kiama and I don't think my pace has slowed much over the years.
Some of the things I have embraced as a not-so-senior citizen include involvement in Kiama Rotary, singing with the Probus Men's Choir, regular golf games and aiming for more quality time with my family and friends.
With age comes a much clearer perspective of what is important in life, and in the quality of that life. I enjoy being part of our wonderful community and helping to shape the vision for our area into the future.
Each year in March I celebrate being a not-so-senior citizen during NSW Seniors Week
I am pleased to join other senior and not-so-senior citizens, who also feel that age is not a barrier to living active and rewarding lives.
Being a not-so-senior citizen works well when you have an age-friendly community and the council looks for ways to help in areas such as community support, health services, social participation, transportation and housing for all stages of life.
Kiama Council aims to become a truly age-friendly community through a number of initiatives and partnerships.
We want to create an age-friendly community that serves our residents' needs, both now and into the future.
We are committed to developing our municipality as one that supports our ageing community to have a high quality of life with meaning, purpose and value and with active participation in community life. To this end, the council will continue to provide a wide range of community services under the newly structured Blue Haven Care model to be launched shortly.
For instance, under the banner we currently provide 110 Home Care Packages across the region and have just been allocated a further 10 new packages.
We are also working to become an age-friendly community through projects such as the Kiama Dementia-friendly Pilot, which is a partnership between Kiama Municipal Council, University of Wollongong and Alzheimer's Australia.
We are looking at the key areas of access, health, community needs, social participation, and dementia-friendly initiatives.
I encourage seniors to participate in the many wonderful events we have planned for Seniors Week and connect with other not-so-senior people in our community.
Seniors Week begins this Saturday, March 14, and there are a variety of events from brunch and a tour of the community garden to Silver Fox computer classes, motorcycle tours and a twilight party.
For more information about Seniors Week go to kiama.nsw.gov.au/residents/seniors/seniors-week/seniors-week or collect a brochure from Kiama Council Administration Centre, the library or the Kiama Community Centre.
