Canberra café’s mission to foster community spirit
Canberra resident Warren Gray shares the story of how he came to be part of a great community initiative that began at his local café. His tale will inspire you to do the same in your area.
I would like to share a story with the Over60 community. It is all about volunteering and how you could and should get involved. This is just some of the ways you can “give back” to the community and get a bit of self satisfaction.
Now to give you a bit of background about me! I volunteer with the Special Olympics (athletes with an intellectual disability) and mentor them in the game of golf whenever I can. I also have a favourite coffee shop I frequent and I have gotten to know the staff there.
Well one day I was sitting there have my usual coffee and cake and the owner of the shop, Emma, asked if she could sit with me and have a chat. Who am I to say no? During these discussions, Emma said she was trying to think of ways of reducing her carbon footprint. She said she was thinking of offering the coffee grounds to people who wanted them instead of putting them into land fill. Apparently, coffee grounds are a great fertiliser for roses, azaleas and a few other plants as well (you learn something new every day!) and, make an excellent body scrub. If you want them you are more than welcome to take an ice cream container home with you (please return the container so it can be reused.)
The discussion then turned to how can she give back to the community and, generate a bit of “community spirit” back into the local area. She said she was thinking of asking a group of ladies that were weekly regulars who had formed a knitting circle. She spoke with the ladies and they said that all the wool was donated and anything knitted (beanies, scarves, crocheted blankets etc) would be passed back into the community for the homeless in Canberra to keep them warm during winter. Believe me, it gets really cold here in winter. While this is not solving the problem of homelessness, it does show those less fortunate, that there are people out there that care and want to help.
She also had a few other ideas and, asked if I had any ideas. I asked her if she recycled the cans from the beetroot, pineapple etc? She said she did put them in the recycling bins but that was about as far as it went. I suggested that these could be used for craft activities and could be made into a few different things. I asked her to keep the cans for me over the next few weeks and I would play around and show her a few different ideas. The point of this suggestion was, to perhaps get a market stall going at some stage in the future and any money raised could be donated to charity or a worthy cause.
Emma has since set up a “Community Hub” at her coffee shop and managed to get a few other activities happening as well. She has another retired lady who runs a Card Making workshop once every few weeks. Another lady is teaching AUSLAN (sign language) classes and this skill can then be used in the wider community. All these activities are run at the coffee shop and participants get a discount rate on their coffees for participating.
Emma and I have also started a Community Book Swap club that is run out of the shop. This is where you can bring a book you have read and swap it for book you want to read. No cost involved (just a little bit of time keeping the book shelf neat and tidy.) We are trying to promote reading for all generations and hope this idea is a success.
Now what is the point of all of the above? It just demonstrates that if you have a skill or a knack you would like to share with others, it is NEVER too late and volunteer and, help others.
I applaud Emma on this initiative and will continue to help where I can. You can volunteer as much or, as little time as you like but it does get you off the couch, perhaps meeting like minded people with similar interests to you and, you have the satisfaction in knowing you have given back to the community or, helped someone less fortunate than ourselves. Most of the activities Emma has so far got up and running are organised or run by mostly us, the over-60s.
If you too have a favourite coffee shop or some other place you go, have a chat with the owner and see if you can start to give your local area a sense of “Community”, it is well worth it.
Do you live in Canberra? Do you have some spare time and skills to share? If you’d like to join Emma’s great initiative, visit her at the Coffee Guru café (outside the Good Guys) at the Tuggeranong Hyperdome. Or you can join the Facebook group here (it’s a closed group, so you’ll have to ask to join).