western
australian branch
reports' archive
Archive of past reports from the SSPA Western Australian
Branch.
1999 |
2000 | 2001
| 2002 |
2003 | 2004 | 2005
| 2007
| 2008
| 2009
| 2010
Our Xmas Party was held on 27th November at the Botanic Golf Park in Wanneroo. Unfortunately there were only 6 families/single people who attended out of 19 invitations sent. Those who did attend had a wonderful time playing mini golf in a shady and beautiful garden set on 5 acres. This was a casual meeting, the only item discussed was David Well's proposed book (on people's experiences of short stature).
Our next meeting will be in April on a farm stay in the country.
Eleanor Rudwick, WA Branch Secretary
Hi everyone,
On the 21st of May the Western Australia branch had a farewell party for Sherryl (our Editor) and her husband Peter who have moved to Melbourne. We wish them all good luck, and hope Sherryl will soon be feeling better after her medical attention. We will miss them both greatly. We also thank Sherryl for all her help.
There were 8 families present including 3 families who had made contact earlier.
There was meant to have been a farm stay organised in April, this is now expected to take place in August. Rosalie to advise a date to everyone by mail.
Regards from us here in the West,
Eleanor Rudwick, WA Branch Secretary
Branch report - September 2000
Hi everyone,
Our AGM was held on 5th August, and the office-bearers remain the same:
Secretary: Eleanor Rudwick
Chairperson: Silvia Chiera
Treasurer: Rosalie Bunce
Silvia (our chairperson) is in hospital at present after having hip replacement surgery, and after a few complications she is doing well. We wish Silvia a quick recovery.
The farm stay is still on the agenda and will be arranged shortly. The Xmas party will be held late November, details to be advised later.
Could you please advise when alterations will be made to the guidelines for short-statured people as we need more copies to be printed.
No nominations for the National AGM on 21st September.
Enquiries: One family (8 week old baby) who have contact with another family in our support group.
Regards,
Eleanor Rudwick, WA Branch Secretary
The first meeting held for the year was at Allan & Eleanor's house in Chidow on Saturday 16 June 2001. There were 11 families present which was a bit of a disappointment, as we expected a larger turn-out considering our last meeting was in November last year. A brief AGM was held and the office-bearers remain the same.
Chairperson: Silvia Chiera
Secretary: Eleanor Rudwick
Treasurer: Rosalie Bunce
The members were advised of a dressmaker, Barbara Mode, ph: (08) 9384 8784, who has patterns for short-statured adults. This information was obtained from the Princess Margaret Hospital. A gold coin donation was suggested and well-received to pay for the postage of invitations to meetings. A total of $41.60 was donated. There is now 30 invitations sent compared to 14 in 1996.
Membership forms and library books were available, and anyone who wasn't at the meeting and requires them can contact the Secretary.
Susan had on display a photo board with photos from the Munthoola weekend in November and from various other functions. This will be done at future meetings and we thank Susan for organizing it.
At 3 July we had received 4 enquiries. Our next meeting is another farm stay, possibly near Pinjarra, which is south of Perth.
Regards,
Eleanor Rudwick, WA Branch Secretary
Unfortunately our weekend down at Pinjarra never eventuated so our first meeting for the year was on 28th April at Berice and Mike's place in Willaton. We had a BBQ and a social afternoon, but there was no meeting. This will be held in the July school holidays and will include our AGM. Maurice from Disability Services for Thornlie and Ferndale had a chat to the members to gain a better understanding of short-statured people.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook, WA Branch Secretary
Our last social get-together was on the 16/17th November last year. We had a weekend away at Collie - 2 hours drive south of Perth. Only 5 families attended but it was a great weekend. Silvia organised a bus tour of the Power Stations and open cut coal mine. Although we would not enter these places due to threat of terrorists, we could see them from the entrance gate.
We had another gold coin collection from the families that attended this weekend and collected a total of $31.14 to go towards postage of invitations etc. for forthcoming events.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook, WA Branch Secretary
Our last meeting was on the 30th November 2003. It was a very casual meeting with only three families attending. This seems to be the trend for some reason.
We will have a break now till March/April next year.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
WA Branch Secretary
Our last meeting was on 22nd May 2004 at Eleanor and Allan’s home in Chidlow. We had only 5 families attend which included 2 new families.
Our next meeting may be a weekend away at Merredin on 16th & 17th October this year.
We have had an enquiry from Mum with 2 children with Diastrophic Dwarfism.
Regards,
Eleanor Rudwick
Secretary, WA Branch
Our last meeting was held on 4 December 2004 at Willeton.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
WA Branch Secretary
We have something to report this time as we had a meeting on (Sunday 3rd June 2007) at Kings Park. There were 10 families who enjoyed a picnic lunch and the children enjoyed activities organised by Jo our Chairperson.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
Secretary SSPA WA Branch
Our next meeting will be a general meeting and will include a brief AGM on 16th September 2007 at the Esplanade at Fremantle. We will have the choice of bringing a picnic lunch or buying fish and chips.
Jo our Chairperson has been very busy recently with organising a SSPA banner to be displayed when we have meetings at a public venue. Jo has also worked very hard in getting the WA SSPA known thru various advertising outlets and media.
The dates for our coming meetings are:
· Halloween party on Nov 3rd when we will have to create a costume out of recycled material.
· Xmas party in December date to be confirmed at Whiteman Park.
Enquiries: 2 from Government Dept. re feedback on new Fiona Stanley Hospital and Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
SSPA WA Branch Secretary
The last meeting was a Halloween party at our home in Mundaring on the 3rd November 2007. Most of the children dressed up and Jo gave prizes for the best costume made from recycled materials. A treasure hunt gave the children some exercise while trying to find the 20 lolly bags which they found except for one.
Attached are
some photos of the Halloween Party. A raffle was held which raised $35.00.
The next meeting is at Whiteman Park on 9th December 2007.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
Secretary WA Branch.
Our last meeting was an Easter picnic at South Beach Park in Fremantle. A raffle was held which raised $28.00. Alan Eggleston was invited to attend but was unable to come at the last minute.
Our previous meeting was at Whiteman Park attended by 9 families. The children painted Christmas moulds or played ball games provided by Jo.
We welcome Jocelyn and Kirsty new adult members. Jo has ordered 50 caps to be sold for fundraising. They will have SSPA logo + est. 1987. Sorry we are unable to pay $1,000 towards the next Convention - we are working on fundraising and hope to get more funds as time goes on.
Jo has organised a donation box for our members to donate stationery items to help the Committee Members with the costs.
A questionnaire was also done so members could give their ideas with what events they would like.
Jo will be attending the Albury Sporting weekend in June.
Upcoming
events: June 15th - Sausage sizzle fundraiser at Jo & Terry's home in Parmelia.
Sept 14th - AGM at the Kelmscott ten pin bowling
centre.
Regards,
Eleanor Snook
Secretary WA SSPA
Branch report - September 2008
Our last get together was in July we had a coffee morning at Sticky Beaks Café in the lovely setting of Kings Park with 24 people attending. One of our families from the country were in the city for an appointment so it was a wonderful chance for us to get together and either catch up with old friends or meet some new ones.
Jo began Taoist Tai Chi and has found it doesn’t cause her back any more pain or discomfort than usual. So watch out for her practicing in the mornings when we have the 2010 Convention here
Upcoming
events & meetings:
Sept 14th - Branch AGM at the Kelmscott ten pin bowling centre.
October 31st: is
Halloween
December 13th:
Adults Only Christmas Dinner at the Phi Yen Vietnamese Restaurant, Brisbane St
in Northbridge. Have you let me know if you’re coming?
December 20th:
Children’s’ Xmas Party, at Ros & Guy & Jays House 11am onwards.
January 2009:
First meeting for the year and a Pool Party! Come and have some input on what to
do this year at Jenelle & David Well’s place in The Vines.
April: Bike Ride
& Picnic (up to 7 km!) Riverton to Woodloes Homestead UBD map 309 L13 (To Be
Confirmed)
Some of the Children & Parents at Kings Park
A few fundraising ideas are going to be discussed at an informal get together at Lisa’s place in late August. One of the ideas we have is a bike ride on one of Perth’s many bike paths in spring or autumn, ending with a picnic lunch.
Book of 20 stamps received from the Franklin family of Merredin, and books of 10 stamps each from Wynne Boar, Silvia Chiera and Jo Bracknell to help cover postage of newsletters and official letters for things like obtaining assistance with fundraising
So far we have sold 14 SSPA WA caps with requests received for two more.
A warm welcome to Kate and her mum Ros and we’ve had 1 young adult added to the email list
Cheers,
WA Committee
Well here we are, nearly at the end of another year. The SSPA of WA has come along in leaps and bounds this year thanks to the incomparable assiduous committee members, families and friends, who help plan, fundraise, and implement meetings, get-togethers, activities and coffee mornings. Thanks guys!
Convention Update
The
planning for the National Convention that’s to be held in WA in 2010 is coming
along nicely! We have a sub-committee with lots of people on it, the site booked
for Sunday Oct 3rd to Saturday Oct 9th 2010,
a bus and driver (may need another bus and we have another driver lined up) and
a person who can help with getting grants, (so whoever does the grants in the
East can you please contact Jo so she can put you in contact with Suzann in case
she needs your help?).
The sub-committee will be getting together soon to nut out activities so that we also have an idea what meals, am/pm teas and supper’s (if any) we’ll need. Then we will send this information to the caterer to get menus and prices.
What’s been happening?
In September we had our AGM at Kelmscott Ten Pin Bowling Centre and Hayley Longbottom was fantastic! Not only was she great at bowling (it worked out she plays league!) but Hayley was wonderful in helping us (who had no idea what we were doing) bowl and we had 17 people come along including a new member, Kate Graham and her mum Ros, we loved meeting them and found both Kate and Ros are absolutely lovely people.
There’s been a few ideas put forward for fundraising, one Jo liked that was given later with the help of Erica was the idea of a “Short Coffee Morning” inviting your family & friends… gold coin donation, raffles and/or door prize (can have a theme). It would be great fun to do!
What’s coming up?
In Nov we are going to get together in Perth with Jenelle Wells (our former events coordinator) and the boys before they move to Tasmania. Jenelle’s husband has a job over there so they’ll be moving by Christmas. Jenelle and Jarrod (13yrs) would love to get in contact with other families with Short Statured children in TAS so contact Jo if you’d like to meet Jenelle and family. We will miss them immensely… Best of luck Well’s Family!
Coming up in December we’re having adults only Christmas dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant, (so far we have 22 people attending) in Northbridge and the children’s Christmas party the week afterwards (so that some of us have time to recover from the adult’s party!). Santa will be making an appearance to hand out gifts and lollies to the children.
Cheers
SSPA WA
Branch report - February 2009
In November we had a get together at Burswood Park to say farewell to
Jarrod Wells and his family, they moved to Tasmania in early January… we
will miss them here but we wish them all the best in their new home.
December saw our first adults’ only Christmas party that I know of. We held it at a Vietnamese restaurant in Northbridge and 19 people came along for a lovely meal, drinks and great company.
A week later we had our Children’s Christmas party at Jay Hudson’s mum & dad’s place. Loads of kids and adults were there. We also had a new short statured couple come along who were absolutely lovely people, and I hope to be able to introduce them to everyone in the future. Santa was very popular handing out gifts and his elf assisted him by giving out the lollies.
In December Jo had Rose Hobbs visit for a couple of weeks… they went to 4 parties including SSPA WA Christmas parties and Alcoa Kwinana’s Christmas party and also went sightseeing in Perth, Fremantle, Rockingham, Mandurah, Serpentine and Mundijong and had a few nice red’s on the way!
J
Other news
The fundraising items we discussed last year will be implemented this year, such as the free dress days in our primary schools and a quiz night. We have a venue in Gosnells booked for the quiz night so now we just need to begin getting our questions, trivia, prizes etc sorted.
Jo has secured a DJ for the 2010 convention who is happy to donate his time and expertise for the times we need him. The programme has been completed for the convention; it just needs a double check over then will be submitted to the onsite caterer and to the SSPA.
Jo has some lovely natural soaps for sale that she makes herself. They cost $4 each or are 3 for $10 (plus postage & packing) so contact her jobracknell@hotmail.com if you’d like more information
Well with Christmas, New Year and the Holiday’s that’s about all our news for now. We wish everyone a happy and successful 2009… all the best!
SSPA WA Committee
In February we had a great get together at Rockingham Foreshore. Most of the
families who attended opted to get take away for their lunch and with so many
great food outlets to choose from the choice was difficult! We had 9 families
come along including a new LP and her mum and one of our young people had 6
family members call by to say “Hi”.
Jo Hopes to have her back operation in June, if she does it is hoped she’s well enough to attend the convention when it comes around.
One of our young adults; Kate Graham has been quietly achieving greatness in her town. Kate was Young Australian of the Year for the Shire of Chittering 2009 her mum and dad were so proud of her because It was unexpected. The award was for her ongoing contributions to Wildlife Conservation, Landcare and bird watching! She also received the annual Chittering Times Award 2009 for the same activities. Kate also had her picture on the front page of the local newspaper!
On March 22nd Jo held a “Short Coffee Morning” to raise funds to help Kate get to the National Convention if she decides to go. Catriona McKechnie generously donated Avon products in a toiletries bag for a silent raffle. Jo’s hubby Terry and a friend Paul were intent on outbidding each other… Terry won; his final bid was $40.00. There was also a money board with the chance to win $20, this was won by Mrs T. and then there was a basket of odd bits of Avon products that were for sale by donation (what the person thought the product was worth) A grand total of $135.00 was raised during the morning, and It was felt for the first attempt it wasn’t too bad so more will be held in the future!
We have had a few ideas for fundraising which include members donating second hand clothing that we sell to a good-will shop for $5 a bag, making a recipe booklet with member’s favourite recipes, having our own 2010 calendar and a wine fundraiser. The chocolates are still selling well with our member who takes boxes to his work (at a major WA hospital!)
Upcoming events include a movie and park outing, (date TBA) and an overnight stay in July at Kate Grahams place in Upper Chittering. Her family have a two story accommodation that sleeps 10 plus extras if they bring a swag or mattress of their own. I know I will be wearing my thermals if I attend as its quite cold up there that time of year!
Regards
Jo Bracknell
Top
What WA has been up to?
May 31st we had a get-together in Mandurah on the foreshore for Shayne Barrett to meet some of us. Eleanor, Alan, Lena & Gemma came along as well as Peter, Terry, Sarina and I. Shayne’s mum Roma was also lovely to meet; she gave Sarina and me lovely lavender bags and a book for me to read. We firstly had a coffee at the Dome until rain forced us to find shelter (we were sitting outside) so we ended up at Cicerello’s for fish & chips where it was lovely and warm and Roma’s sister met us in there. Then after a walk along the foreshore (for some of us) and another coffee the last of us said our farewells and left for home.
Jo has added a Useful Contacts section to her newsletter for members to learn who is available for things such as pedal extensions, grants, and where to go for things such as ACROD permits. Jo has also added a Help/Wanted section as she had a mum ask if an advertisement could be put in for a bike for her daughter. Jo will also be adding items that are wanted for fundraising.
Important Announcement
Erica and Luke Grant are the proud parents of a baby boy born May 20th another brother for Keelin and a younger brother for Caleb.
Congratulations Grant Family from all of us in the SSPA
Things that WA has up-coming:
July 18/19th Overnighter at the Graham’s Place in Chittering
August Morning coffee at Jo’s entry is gold coin donation and there will be fundraising (such as money board, raffles and games) so bring lots of money! (Date TBA)
September 19th Auction & Quiz night. We will have available for sale the much sort after SSPA WA calendars and recipe books put together by members of the SSPA WA.
October/November
Here somewhere will be a sausage sizzle in Canning Vale. We’ll need volunteers to help with this!
December Children’s Christmas party followed by adults Christmas dinner a week later (Venues and Dates TBA)
Fundraising endeavours
Include a sausage sizzle, quiz night, calendars, and recipe books and there are also chocolates for sale.
Cheers
WA Committee
Branch report - September 2009
On the weekend of 18 & 19th July 09 our group was lucky to be invited to
a Farm Stay owned by one of our members. The Farm stay is called ''Ruff
Tuff'' and is located in Lower Chittering which is approx just over 1
hour north of Perth.
The family Ros, Andrew, Cameron and Kate run sheep on the farm and we were able to see the lambs being vaccinated, ear marked and tailed.
Anne (Grandma) is a wildlife carer and had 2 joeys in her care, their mothers being victims of a road kill. Anne raises the joeys until they are able to be released into the bush again. Other animals the children were able to enjoy were the dogs, a pet lamb and variety of chooks and peafowl.
Overall 6 families + friends attended the weekend away.
Jo had her back operation on Friday 3rd July, and then spent about 2 weeks in Rehab before returning home.
Lisa is still working on fundraising for the upcoming convention and is working on a sausage sizzle outside the Bunning's store for next year. Marion collected some 2nd hand clothes that we will sell to the Good Samaritan for $5 a bag.
From Lena Snook on behalf of Jo Bracknell
Group who attended the Farm Weekend
Bottle feeding the baby joeys was very popular!
Things have been a bit quiet on the WA SSPA front what with everyone’s lead up to the Holiday season being very busy, but we did have a small get together at Matilda Bay on the Swan River near Peth City on Sunday December 6th. Rosa, Isabella, Jocelyn, Peter, Fiona, Tiffany and her brother (and his mate) and Jo all had a lovely lunch under the beautiful shady trees by the river. Fiona’s mum and her mum’s husband joined us for while as they live nearby and it was lovely to meet them both. It was decided as it was such a lovely spot we would go there again one day soon!
One of our children, Rosie, had her picture in the Sunday paper on the 6th December promoting the Symphony of Sunflowers. By planting sunflower seeds, the aim was to recognise the potential behind all children and the need to include those with disabilities or learning disadvantages. (www.symphonyofsunflowers.com.au)
Jo had a lovely phone call from Silvia of Collie, she gave some great advice to do with convention planning One was to get a lotteries grant for the bus/es and the other was to have all our country people to approach their local member of Parliament and get him/her to write a letter of support for us having the convention here in WA it needs to include how it’s vital for us to be together.
We have had two donations to our convention fundraising in the last month. The first one came from the Glen Iris Tuesday Ladies Golf Club of $806.20 and then a cheque from Great Southern Limited (in Albany) for $200. A Certificate of Appreciation was sent in thanks to both wonderful groups.
Chocolates are still being sold through family & friends of our group.
Jo deposited $40 to the WA account for a haircut and colour done by Lisa.
So the balance of our account would be over $3000 now…yay!
Who would think Jo would still be writing the WA newsletter two years later after writing the first newsletter for WA’s wonderful group… The first one was winter 2007 and she talked about getting our face out there more to create more awareness of short statured people in the community.
Jo-Anne Bracknell
Our small but industrious group have been meeting monthly (with the occasional get together in between this also) to organise the 2010 Perth Convention. With no experience doing this sort of organisation, and only 2 of us having ever attended a convention it is a highly challenging job but we are getting there!
The registration form and program are now ready to go and I will be able to distribute these at the Albury Sporting Weekend for those that are interested. Thanks to Rose, Rob M and Malcolm for helping finalise the details for these. My understanding is that it will go on the SSPA website for people to access themselves as well as in the Journal. We will also provide a link from the event page on Facebook.
Fundraising is going incredibly well however as usual it is the same small but dedicated group organising the convention that are doing all the fundraising work. The upcoming Sausage Sizzle at Bunning’s hopefully will get some support from the wider short statured community. Raffle ticket selling will also require some help. We are yet to hear back about the grant application to FaHCSIA.
We will need to confirm our booking with Point Walter in early August so hopefully people attending will have enough time between now and then to submit their registration forms.
I understand Malcolm (and Rose) will be adding some information to the Journal regarding the financial support SSPA will be offering short statured members to attend the convention. This will be in addition to the travel allowance.
There is still a huge amount of work to do between now and October. Special thanks to Jo, Chris, Helen, Erica (doing the massive budget job), and Lisa (organising the fundraising) for helping this all come together. Also thanks to Rose, Rob and Malcolm for being so helpful and patient, and answering all our questions!
Anne Battista
Branch report - September 2010
With the
Convention just a few weeks away the Convention committee are very busy
getting everything organised for the Convention. We have been amazed at
the incredible response and have more than 50 people registered as full
time attendees, from all parts of the country, country WA and Perth.
Unfortunately Senator Eggleston will no longer be opening the Convention
(in person) as he has other commitments associated with his busy
political life. However he has promised to provide some content in some
way. We hope to be in touch soon with people who are travelling in by
plane, so if you haven't heard from us and you are expecting a pick up
from the airport please try and contact one of the committee.
The Medical Day is shaping up with Professor Sillence and Dr Jenny Ault
both travelling to WA to share their expertise. We are also lucky to
have Penny Ireland, Physiotherapist and PhD student from QLD, attending
the medical day. Penny will be filling us in on the progress of her
research as well as helping out with workshops in the afternoon. Still
to be confirmed are a dentist or orthodontist, and a dietician.
Stephanie Broley (Genetic Counsellor) will be coming also. Many of you
will know Stephanie from the East Coast but Stephanie now resides in WA
and she will be helping with the workshops in the afternoon. Please also
read the article from a research team based at King Edward Memorial
Hospital, looking at 3D facial imaging. These guys will be at the
Convention looking to sign up willing candidates for their research, as
part of this they will be giving a short presentation on their research.
We have all the usual social activities, and a small addition to the
programme is a “talent night” component to our disco (special request
from some of our more influential members!). Hopefully Perth will turn
on its usual beautiful weather.
See you there!
Anne Battista
Socially we have been very quiet since the Convention. Some of our
members have begun new jobs, taken up further education and gone on
overseas holidays. Up to four of our WA people are planning on going
to the Little People of Americas Convention in July 2011. So at the
moment they are keeping an eye on the prices of flights and are
waiting with anticipation for the American Convention registration
forms to be released.
Jo plans on holding some fundraising events early next year to help
with the costs of this expedition. Jocelyn has had some ideas on
getting our young people involved in playing sports together. She is
currently working on the fine details and will soon let us know what
shes come up with. We had an enquiry from Jerry Badalassi and his
partner who were members 2008/2009 (unsure if they are current
members) about our future get togethers and activities.
We'd like to wish everyone a fantastic 2011 and we hope that you realise your New Year resolutions!
The 13
th December arrived with great news that the Glen Iris Tuesday Ladies Golf Club had donated $700 that they had raised for us from their amazing fundraising throughout 2010. So a HUGE thanks go to these wonderful ladies once again!On the 18
th December, Eleanor, Allan, Lena, Jocelyn, Rosa, Isabella, Jo & Terry went to see a play titled "Dirty Deeds at the Depot". Peter Longbottom played a part in the play where he appeared to be the villains side kick but there was a twist at the end! It was a great musical with people bring out signs to encourage the audience to participate in cheering for the heroes and booing for the villain.Rosalie, Jocelyn, Jo & Terry are coming along nicely with their plans on going to the LPA National Convention this year. They are just waiting on registration forms to be released by the LPA which happens on January 18
th, once we are sure on who is going we will hopefully do some fundraisers to assist with the costs of getting us there.Jocelyn has had a great idea on getting our branch more involved in sporting activities and here is an excerpt of her article in Jos last newsletter;
"I thought that maybe we should start up some meetings there were more tailored to sports. The kids are so active and as they have spent the national convention week forming new friendships, we should use the opportunity to continue growing these friendships and also allowing the kids to have a sports day catered to them, their friends and families.
An idea that has come to mind to ensure we also include all our country members is to possibly have a meeting during the school holidays in January and another in July (National conventions are held during the September holidays). If we organise the date in advance, we can also take advantage of when the country members may be in Perth for doctor consults etc."
Our next get together will be on the 16
th January at Coogee beach which is located a few kilometres south of Fremantle. As this is written we have 6 families that have confirmed they are coming along and we hope to get the ball rolling with Jocelyns fabulous idea.We'd like to wish all the school age children a great year at school...
Regards
SSPA (WA Branch)
Any comments or suggestions should be
forwarded to: francisjk@bigpond.com
Copyright: ©1998 Short Statured People of Australia Inc. All rights
reserved.
Last updated:
28 December, 2011