Community service providers that supported Griffith's most vulnerable during COVID have sung the praises of one of Griffith's largest clubs.
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Griffith Exies provided man power and community space to services in desperate need during the toughest months of COVID, despite the club itself feeling the sting of the pandemic.
Service providers Griffith Aged Care had to cease all group activities in March which left their elderly clients at home, many of them alone, bombarded with COVID on the television.
Monica Beckman, social worker at Griffith Aged Care explained that even though they were able to provide individual house visits to check up on people, they knew they had to get their clients out into the community as soon as possible to prevent serious mental health issues.
"We realised we had to do something for our groups so we went and spoke to the general manager (of the Exies club) and told him of our predicament," Mrs Beckman explained.
Mrs Beckman needed a space for clients who were elderly, experienced severe mobility issues and were at high risk if they were to fall ill.
"We knew they were prepared with COVID marshals and deep cleaning... Everything that would make our seniors feel comfortable and safe," Mrs Beckman said.
"We are still having our Tuesday groups there every week now. Their staff give us table service which is great, we are spoiled rotten."
Exies who provides jobs for 80 staff have had their trials this year too, with COVID shelving key development plans they had in the pipelines. However, according to their general manager Garry Tucker looking after their staff and prioritising the community has been what's helped to keep the club going.
With a skeleton staff during COVID, Exies filled in for Meals on Wheels deliveries for the 10 weeks of COVID. Meals on Wheel's volunteer workforce had been basically shut down due to the large number of volunteers who were in the high-risk category and without the support from the Exies would have left their vulnerable clients quite literally starving.
"Gary and his staff went on daily delivery runs for us and without their assistance we wouldn't have been able to operate," Tennille Valensisi, Meals on Wheels coordinator said.
"We have four runs a day to get our meals out and we were struggling with volunteers so our coordinators would have been running on exhaustion if we hadn't had support.
"We were very lucky that the Exies supported us through that."
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Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
Kat is a former English teacher to international students and has taught all over the world. She is beginning a new career as a journalist with the Area News. Got something you want to chat about? She's all ears.
