Dannevirke Community Board helps fund Woodville expo for elderly

Members of the Age on the Go Expo Committee at their first meeting.

Dannevirke Community Board will contribute $400 to the Age on the Go Expo to be held in Woodville on April 23.

The donation will cover the cost of hiring the Woodville Community Centre for the event and follows a request for board funding from the Tararua District Age on the Go Expo Committee which is made up of members of the Tararua Health and Wellbeing Governance Group, together with care home representatives and other groups that work with the elderly.

Already the committee has received $1500 from Mid-Central District Health Board and $650 from the Waireka Community Trust.

The expo will be a high-quality and professional one-day forum which aims to bring together many services and activities which can be accessed across Tararua.

The estimated cost will be about $10,000.

The first meeting of the Age on the Go Expo Committee was attended by Christa Welch (Waireka), Jacqui Langrick (Pahiatua Community Services Trust), Turia Brackenbury (Woodville), Alison Franklin (sub-group chairwoman), Sharon Wards (Tararua Health and Wellbeing Governance Group chairwoman), Liz Elliot (MidCentral DHB) and former Elske Centre manager Kay McClennan. The first meeting of the committee took place in July. It had initially been hoped to hold the expo in November but the timeframe was too tight so it was moved to April.

In a letter requesting a grant councillor Alison Franklin, writing on behalf of the committee, said it was hoped the event could become biennial.

The committee aimed to move the expo around the district to give the elderly an equal opportunity to attend.

"We decided to hold the first one in Woodville because of its proximity to Palmerston North where most exhibitors will come from and because Woodville is seen as being in the middle of the district and therefore the ideal location to launch the first expo."

The expo will bring together government and non-government agencies, service providers to the elderly and mobility experts under one roof, offering the opportunity for older people to easily access everyone they need to support them with advice, advocacy and assistance, the application stated.

Franklin said Age on the Go Expos had successful been held in Horowhenua, Manawatū and Central Hawke's Bay.

"We have worked closely with the organisers from Horowhenua where the council is actively involved in the event. The support we have received has been second to none and we have not had to 'reinvent the wheel' but rather emulate other events that have been held so successfully around us."

Franklin said the first step in the process was to seek support from Trust Tararua for funding purposes.

"The project supports the aims of the trust whose vision is working toward a safe Tararua community where people thrive and care for each other."

The committee would like to run buses to the expo from Norsewood in the north and Eketahuna in the south, picking up the elderly and returning them at the end of the day.

The expo will run from 10am until 3pm. The committee felt if it was any longer it would be too hard on the elderly.

There will be mini-seminars throughout the day and this part of the expo is being organised by representatives of Mid-Central District Health Board.

Community board member Ross Macdonald questioned why local businesses weren't approached to submit quotes for services.

"It's not a very good look getting quotes from out of town."

However, in the funding application Franklin said the committee had to source some hire equipment from outside the region. For example there was nowhere in the district to source exhibition equipment so this had to be obtained from a Wellington-based event management company.

Tararua District Council governance manager Richard Taylor said it was a case of obtaining what was required.

"The committee wanted experienced suppliers. It wasn't a case of not going locally, it was a case of who could supply what was needed for a function of this size."