Christmas picnic for community elders

Christmas picnic for community elders

For the first time, ACON will host a Christmas picnic for older members of the community in a move welcomed by Mature Age Gays founder Steve Ostrow.
The free picnic will be held for older gays and lesbians, and their friends and family, on December 21.

The event was inspired by the passing of two community veterans, Marie Fischer and Gordon Peck, said ACON CEO Stevie Clayton.

In the process of dealing with that and grieving, it became obvious to us how many older people in our community are quite isolated and will be alone at Christmas. So we thought it would be good to organise a picnic where older people of our community could get together, have a feed and have a bit of entertainment and socialising, Clayton said.

Ostrow said the picnic was definitely a step in the right direction.
We have meetings on the second and last Saturday of every month, and each one of those gets around 120 people. That pretty much tells you there isn’t much going on in the rest of our youth-oriented gay society, so yes, I think this idea for a picnic is great.

The concerns for our community are about what’s going to happen to us in the future. Isolation is another big concern and these issues are absolutely brought to the forefront at Christmas time because it’s normally a family thing for most people, Ostrow said. He encouraged everyone, young and old alike, to get involved with the event or to come along to a MAG meeting and learn something from an elder.

The next MAG meeting will be held at ACON on December 27.

info: The ACON Christmas picnic for older gays and lesbians is on December 21 from 12 noon, in Centennial Park at the corner of Musgrave Avenue. BYO alcohol. To RSVP or for further information email: [email protected] or phone: 9206 2032

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