90, and still helping

At 90 years old, Valmai Vines believes age is no barrier to community connection.
Ms Vines volunteers every Wednesday at the Community Life Uniting Church Op Shop in Ellen Grove and encourages others to get involved in enriching the community.
“I’m fortunate to be 90 years old and still able to be active and involved in the volunteering I have done on and off over the years,” she said.
“This is the longest time that I’ve volunteered at one place. I’ve been volunteering for over seven years at the Community Life Op Shop, and now only on Wednesdays.”
Throughout her life, Ms Vines has volunteered on and off. Before retiring, she read to children admitted to hospitals and visited aged care homes.
“Even if I wasn’t a Christian, I think I would still volunteer,” she said.
“Most of the people in the op shop don’t go to church, but they have that feel for community, of giving back not because of their faith, but to give back because they’re interested in other people’s lives.
“I work in the back room with some other very special ladies, where donations are dropped off. It can be a very busy, busy place.
“We do, collecting, greeting people, sorting, distributing, pricing, and then selling, in the front shop.”
Fellow volunteer and Forest Lake resident Keith McDonald is 94 years old and has been a member of the Rotary club for 50 years this September.
On Thursday mornings at Forest Lake’s Uniting Church, Mr McDonald hands out food packages to those in need.
Roughly 35 people receive food packages every week, or 30 on a slow week, Mr McDonald said.
Fortnightly on Tuesdays, Mr McDonald participates in a volunteering program run at a local childcare centre called ‘grandparenting’, which he finds “terrific”.
“We go up to the local preschool and our class is around about 18 to 20 kids,” Mr McDonald said.
“I was connected last year with them, and you get to grow a relationship with and get to know the kids.
“I had a little lad whom I spent time with during the program, and I met his mother, and we’ve had meetings at a nearby coffee shop.”
The program is mutually beneficial, particularly for children without grandparents who live nearby or older people without grandkids.
Mr McDonald said that as he gets older, volunteering has become more challenging physically.
He does not allow these challenges to deter him.