THERE were 12 Seniors' Festival events in Bathurst in 2016.
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And this year? It's more than 90.
John Hollis, of the local Seniors' Festival Organising Committee, pointed to that "tremendous growth" in the festival as he joined with mayor Jess Jennings this week to preview the 2024 edition.
"I see it [the festival] as recognising the seniors in our community and making the seniors think about themselves and be active," he said.
"There's lot of activities they can get involved with: a broad range of activities to meet all tastes."
Cr Jennings said the festival - to be held locally from March 11 to 24 - "is a way of acknowledging the amount of effort, volunteerism, wisdom and experience" seniors bring to Bathurst.
"We've got a great range of events coming up: everything from exercise classes to cooking classes to history talks," he said.
"There'll be something there for every type of senior involved.
"And I'm really looking forward to seeing some high levels of participation."
Personal connection
ON a personal note, Cr Jennings offered a recollection from his youth.
"From about my mid-teenager period to about mid-20s, I was my grandmother's aged carer," he said.
"For half of that time, it was basically a full-time job in itself.
"I was studying and working at the same time, but I was her primary carer. And she was effectively, outside the house, wheelchair-bound.
"I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for seniors and for enjoying old age and being able to reflect on their life and dignity in an interesting and enjoyable way so that something like Seniors' Week really does offer the opportunity to have that level of engagement."
Cr Jennings said one of the best things he had ever had the chance to do was to take his grandmother "back to her home town of Riga, the capital city of Latvia, after 40 years of not being in Europe".
She had come to Australia in 1950, he said.
"Given it was the first time she was able to cross back over the iron curtain, which had dropped by then, it was a pretty monumental emotional experience," Cr Jennings said.
"She got to meet her best friend of the first 40 years of her life, who she'd never had contact with again since communism took over."
No matter what age a person is, he said it's really important that they "are able to have that emotional connection and engagement with the rest of the world".
Cr Jennings and Mr Hollis said the Seniors' Festival events have been put together in collaboration between council and the Seniors' Festival Organising Committee.
