Αρχεία: News & Events

Everyone loves to go out of the house. Even the family dog will wag his tail when its time to go on an excursion.

Why do we like it?

We love to see new and different things. We enjoy the sensory experiences, the sites, sounds, smells, textures and tastes on offer when we go on excursion. The sun on our face. The sand in between our toes. The fluffy milk froth on the cappuccino. The wind whistling in the trees. The hubbub of the shopping centre. The thrill of the cinema. The spectacle of the fireworks.

At St. Basil’s our fleet of buses work all daylight hours and sometimes at night to get our residents out and about. They love it. We love it.

Sometimes if its raining, we just go for a ride in the bus, look at the beach, enjoy some hot chips in the bus and come home. Other times, we plan for weeks to get our residents to the light show or to the fireworks. We take a picnic basket, hot drinks, blankets and chairs. We do trips to wineries and pick grapes. We do good old-fashioned shopping every week. We go and dip our feet at the beach or dress up for a trip to the frosty mountains. In winter it could be hot chocolate in a park, in summer, ice-cream at the beach.

Regardless of when you were born, everyone loves to get out and do different things. At St. Basil’s we love to fulfil this human need with as many excursions as possible.

Katerina has been volunteering daily since she and her husband retired. Living in Wollongong, they were attending their local Greek Orthodox Church, listening to the sermon by a visiting priest, Father John Kapetas. At the time, Father John was the CEO of St. Basil’s Homes. He was talking about the extensive aged care work of St. Basil’s and the help it offers the Greek community.

After the service Katerina and her husband Constantine, asked Father John if they could visit. The next morning when he arrived at his office in Lakemba, they were already there, waiting for him, having travelled from Wollongong by public transport.

For the next thirty years, they were at St. Basil’s every day as volunteers, helping with anything and everything. They would socialise the residents, help with feeding, entertainment, special events, church services, gardening and many, many more.

Within a few years, they sold their home in Wollongong and moved to a unit in Lakemba to be close to the volunteer work that gave their life so much meaning.

Constantine and Katerina aged well in their role, happily devoting their lives to assisting other people. Constantine passed away a few years ago, and Katerina continues to this day, quietly helping wherever she can and whenever she is needed.

Our patron, Saint Basil the Great once said that to reap love, one must sow kindness. Constantine and Katerina are an embodiment of that advice. Katerina always says that in the volunteering work, she gets much more in love, than she had ever given.

Every week at St. Basil’s, in each facility, we enjoy art therapy. This is a very popular activity that stimulates the mind, improves fine motor skills, develops socialisation, boost one’s sense of creativity and results in works of art that can be treasured or gifted to someone.

The artworks produced by our consumers are awe-inspiring. Some of them are large works, full of colour and life. Other pieces are small water colours which are subtle and precious.

Our consumers have had an inspirational thought. They want to auction their paintings to raise funds for the children of St. Tabitha Orphanage in Fiji.

We warmly invite you to attend the “Art for Orphans” exhibition and auction at 6pm on 17 October at St. Basil’s Randwick, 57-63 St. Pauls Street Randwick.

Come and see these wonderful works by older people who are so proud to share them with you. If you buy these works, you will be helping build a life for the orphans of St. Tabitha Fiji and you will be helping our elderly people know that they can still make valuable contributions to the community.

One of the key facts that people agree on is that as we age, if we do not have physical activity in our life, we will lose the little mobility we have even faster.

For an older person, physical activity can improve mobility by loosening up joints and strengthening muscles and bones. With stronger muscles, our balance will improve and with improved balance, our physical confidence will grow. This will then lead to improved mental health as we will release the good “happiness” chemicals in our brain. Furthermore, considering physical activity is most often done with others, our social relationships will improve. Science has shown that those people who have more social relationships, live longer.

At St. Basil’s we know that human movement is one of the critical elements to improving the lives of our consumers. For this reason, we organise exercise sessions every day, we have gymnasiums with experienced physiotherapists, we encourage walking groups and excursions daily to parks, beaches and cafes.

Not a week goes by when we are not found dancing and singing!

As you can see, movement is not just about pumping weights or using a treadmill. It is simply using your body to connect with the world around you and improving your health in the process.

On Monday, 19 March, the mayor of Randwick, Lindsay Shurey, Visited St. Basils latest aged care development at Randwick.

Father Nicholas Stavropoulos, Chief executive officer of St. Basils, and Shane Booth, general manager of St. Basils Randwick, escorted the mayor on a tour of the facility.

Joined by Father Milton, one of the residents, the mayor was impressed with the grove of fig trees, the pool, The roof garden and especially the when dedicated to care of people living with dementia.

Further Milton presented the mayor with one of his paintings, completed during the art therapy sessions conducted as part of the activities at St. Basil’s.

Mayor Shurey enjoyed refreshments in the expansive modern dining and lounge area, while discussing her aspirations for the Randwick local government area and possible cooperation with St. Basil’s and the local community.

On Saturday 17th of March, St. Basil’s in Randwick organized an Open Day for the public with great success.

A lot of activities took place for the adults, such as food tasting and replying to questions concerning our services in the facility.

In addition to that there were quite a few activities for the children including face painting and balloon twisting and also there was a playground available for them in order to have some fun.

In conjunction with Randwick’s council, there was also a stall providing information about the council’s services.

The visitors that attended were provided with a tour on our facility by our staff members and had the pleasure of enjoying the wonderful view from our facility’s terrace.

On Sunday 11th of March, St. Basil’s participated at “The Spot” Festival, which is Randwick’s Council biggest annual street festival.

From early in the morning, lots of people had the opportunity to enjoy the end of this year’s summer in a multicultural atmosphere combining great food, shows, live music and dancing.

During the event, plenty of activities were available for children as well as multiple cultural performances to provide entertainment to everyone.

The festival was only a few minutes away from the new facility of St. Basil’s at Randwick and the visitors had the opportunity to visit the stall of St. Basil’s and to receive information from the friendly and qualified staff about community and residential services that the new facility offers.

Visitors to the stall received their personal invitation to St. Basil’s Randwick Open Day on Saturday 17th of March from 9.00 am

On Friday 9th of March, at 2.00 pm, an information session was organised for the residents of the Independent Living Units at St. Basil’s Randwick.

This session gave the opportunity for the residents to meet and greet Mr Ryan Kisner, the new Village Manager of St. Basil’s Randwick and to share information about the services available at the Community Centre within the facility.

Mr Ryan Kisner introduced himself to the residents and had an interesting discussion with them about their needs. Mrs Anita Bonanno, the General Manager of Community Services, spoke to the residents for the Home Care Packages, the Day Centre services and an upcoming innovative project in cooperation with the Business Development department regarding food services at home.