CREATIVITY, exercise and lifelong learning. That’s the key to a long, happy life according to Sydney woman Bobbie Kersten.
The archetypal volunteer, Bobbie never seems to run out of energy and enthusiasm.
She studied fashion design and spent her early working life in the fashion industry. She later worked in the administration section of TAB. On retiring in 1990, Bobbie joined Sydney University of the Third Age (U3A).
For almost three decades she has attended classes, served as a committee member for the Inner West region and acted as organiser and leader of events and out there activities.
She refers to her third age, that period after full time work, as her “R phase” – the age of renewal, rejuvenation, redirection and reinvention.
Through U3A Bobbie combines her love of the bush, joy of dance and passion for history. On the cusp of 80, she spends time researching and leading walks with a touch of history thrown in and in giving dance lessons.
“While students keep attending I’ll keep teaching” said Bobbie, who also volunteered at Everglades Historic House and Garden in Leura for 10 years.
She also enjoys bushwalking, china painting, yoga, washi art (creating pictures using handmade natural Japanese papers), tai chi, ancestry and canasta – all through U3A.
In her spare time she is an avid traveller.
The U3A movement’s mission is to deliver continuing education programs in a relaxed, informal manner.
Sydney U3A is the largest in the southern hemisphere with about 6500 members enjoying more than 400 courses including book groups, current affairs, film, sociology, exercise, philosophy, art, language, literature, science and technology, and bushwalks.
- (02) 9262-2701, www.sydneyu3a.org
The Third Age: Creative and Healthy Living
Sydney will host the 26th U3A Network NSW conference from June 28-30.
It will bring together members, experts and practitioners under the theme The Third Age: Creative and Healthy Living.
Speakers include Macquarie University’s Professor David Christian – who has been teaching a dynamic version of the history of humanity for 25 years he calls “Big History”; human-computer specialist Professor Toni Robertson from the University of Technology Sydney’s Interactive Design and Human Practice Laboratory; creative ageing program expert Chris Mead; and Australian Centre for Arts and Health executive director Margret Meagher.
The conference will be held in the Lower Town Hall in Sydney’s CBD.
- Bookings with Sally Davis, 0419-274-573, or Judy Harris, 0447-194-510, www.u3answconference.org