Brandon Park Newsletter Christmas 2017

BRANDON PARK EDITION – CHRISTMAS 17 Project manager Travis Cocks with sales advisors Michelle Shaw and Dale Singleton at the Brandon Park site

Inside this issue: • Our new café • Concrete pours at Brandon Park • Meet Premila and Ebbie • Flash Mob!

2

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

A note from Dale and Michelle Hello and welcome to the new edition of Ryman Times.

It’s been a fantastic start to our new retirement village at Brandon Park. We sold over 50 apartments and the new residents are looking forward to their apartments being built.

Our residents love the full continuum of care including independent and assisted living, low care, high care and specialist dementia care. Our Ryman Peace of Mind Guarantees, such as fixed weekly fees, no refurbishment or hidden costs and deferred management fee capped at 20%, sets us apart from other village operators in Australia.

The site itself is going full steam ahead.

Currently there are approximately 60 workers on site and that will increase to about 250 once the village takes shape.

Mount Waverley, Wheelers Hill and Mulgrave, and we are looking forward to happy times with them at the village.

Our sales office is open 7 days a week, which makes it easy for family and friends to visit, you are welcome to pop in any time. The show apartment looks amazing and when a potential buyer walks in, the word “wow” is used quite often.

We'd love to hear from you if you would like to view the new apartments, so feel free to call us to make an appointment.

Kind regards,

Dale Singleton Sales Advisor 03 9271 3636

Michelle Shaw Sales Advisor 03 9271 3636

Most of our soon-to-be residents come from the local area, Glen Waverley,

Cafés have been a runaway success at Ryman’s newest villages and our Brandon Park village will be getting one too.

CAFE

o n a t i s o P

Everyone loves a barista-made coffee and the cafés – which have been built at five New Zealand villages, have been a hit with residents and their families.

As well as providing a meeting place for residents, the cafés are popular with families and friends of residents in Ryman’s care centres who can take their relatives downstairs for a treat.

They’re especially popular with grandchildren – there’s nothing better than a sweet treat to add a bonus to the weekend trip to see the grandparents – or great-grandparents.

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition Brandon Park site during October 2017

Concrete pours set Brandon Park in progress Work is really cranking up at our Brandon Park site with numerous concrete pours.

In mid-October, the first pours for the footings of the village centre and first apartment block were completed.

Next, the pours for the floor slabs of both buildings were completed.

“That involved around 140 cubic metres of concrete for a 1100m slab so there were 25 odd trucks on site for that,” said project manager Travis Cocks.

And if concrete wasn’t being poured it was being lifted in, in the form of precast panels. This was done using the 200ton crawler crane on site.

Once the buildings start getting some height, a luffing boom will be added to the main boom so it can reach over the building sides.

Travis said two all-terrain cranes arrived in mid-November to help with the heavy lifting.

Greg Conquest and Connell Bergin are the foremen for the first apartment block, helping concrete contractor Andrew Bradford manage the pour.

Greg said he was excited to join Ryman to work on such a big project.

“This is the biggest project I’ve worked on to date. Everything is so much bigger!” he said.

Andrew said he was excited to work with Ryman as his Auntie, Liz Bradford, was the activities coordinator in the special care unit at Christchurch’s Anthony Wilding village.

“She’ll be really chuffed!” he said.

Travis said the 11-man Ryman team was expanded by around 60 contractors working on site but that will increase by more than triple when the construction reaches its peak.

3

4

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

Lighting up Melbourne’s malls With a combined age of 1775, a group of retirees surprised morning shoppers in Melbourne on a whirlwind tour of three malls.

The group of 22 residents from our Weary Dunlop Retirement Village in Wheelers Hill performed the flash mobs in three hours at Brandon Park, Waverley Gardens and Wellington shopping centres.

The flash mob tour was conjured up to mark the Victorian Seniors Festival and prove that there’s no age limit on being fit and funky, and having fun!

They had been practising their dance moves for just under six weeks under the expert guidance of their dance coordinator Kerri Stephens and were asked for encores at each mall.

Village manager Chris Barnett said he was impressed with how well the residents performed.

"They loved having a new challenge and took to it so well, full credit to them," he said.

The flash mobbers are all participants in Ryman's in-house exercise programme, Triple A. Chris said he noticed the multiple benefits on those that take part.

"Our residents credit their agility to the Triple A classes. And as well it's given them the confidence to tackle something pretty adventurous like this."

Iris Tippet (85), one of the performers who took pride of place in the front line of the formation, was thrilled that all four of her daughters came along to support her.

“It was fantastic. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!” she said.

Iris actually nearly did miss it as she had tripped and hurt her wrist the day before and her daughter Debra thought she should go and get it checked out.

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

Friends Yvonne Fernando and Diana Gatehouse said they had a blast and were keen to do another performance back at the village happy hour on their return.

“It’s just so much fun. I think we should do this every week,” said Diana.

The Triple A programme was devised by exercise physiologist Nicki Brown, formerly Ryman’s activities and lifestyle manager and now a regional operations manager.

Nicki completed a study of Triple A as part of her continuing education and concluded that individuals generally exercised less prior to moving into a retirement village, and their fitness improved in the new environment.

“There was no way she was missing it,” said Debra. “She was determined to be there!”

Granddaughter Kate brought her children - Iris’ great-grandchildren, Jayden (3) and Makayla (4) - who came dressed as superheroes for the occasion.

Everyone in the family firmly agreed that Iris was also a superhero!

Debra added that Iris had had a tough time with her health over the years undergoing over 30 operations and even suffering a broken back.

“It’s been amazing seeing Mum gain strength and fitness from doing exercise classes and she’s made great friends too.

Last year three of them all went on a cruise.

Her mantra is that the fitter you are – whatever your age or stage – the healthier you will be in the years ahead.

“It makes me think I can’t wait to move into a retirement village!” she laughed.

More than 3,000 residents follow the regime at Ryman’s 31 villages.

New residents to the village, Betty and Alan Clarke only joined the group two weeks before the performance but had no trouble learning the moves.

“The truth is you’re never too old to exercise – you’ve just got to choose the right way to do it.”

“We’ve done a lot of square dancing over the years so it wasn’t too difficult for us,” said Betty.

“I loved every minute of it,” said Alan.

“We’ve been saying to the staff, ‘what are we doing next?!’”

5

6

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

Christmas tree cookies Makes approx 10 trees Ingredients: • 2 cups flour • ½ tsp baking soda • 1 tbsp ground ginger • 1 cup (220g) firmly packed soft brown sugar • 150g butter

• •

1 egg Cookie cutter, one shape varying sizes

Royal icing sugar: • 2 egg whites • 2 cups icing sugar • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180°C. 2. Sift flour, baking soda and ground ginger together in a bowl. Add butter.

3. In a separate bowl beat the egg and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Mix everything together. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

5. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut out the shapes.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.

Keep an eye on the smaller cookies so that they don’t burn.

7. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack.

8. Assemble the tree by using a bit of icing sugar between the layers.

Royal icing sugar: Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla extract. Beat at high speed until thickened.

Suggest a village name...

When we name a village, we look to honour local or national icons that have made a real difference. For example, we have the Bruce McLaren village in Howick, Weary Dunlop village in Melbourne, Kiri Te Kanawa village in Gisborne and the Ernest Rutherford village in Nelson.

To suggest a name and reason, please phone Dale or Michelle on 03 9271 3636 or email dale.singleton@rymanhealthcare.com or michelle.shaw@rymanhealthcare.com

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

Introducing Premila & Ebbie When Ryman Healthcare's Weary Dunlop village was built they were very interested and put their names down for an apartment. However, not everyone agreed with their decision.

Premila, who still enjoys working as a relief teacher at two local colleges after retiring from a four-decade long tenure at Dandenong High School, says their family was not sure about it.

"We would have moved to Weary Dunlop but our two daughters said 'you're not ready for it now'," she says.

"However, when Ryman told us they were considering buying the land at Brandon Park it suited our plan perfectly. It is next door to our Parish, Good Shepherd Catholic Church, and the shops, and our daughter lives just down the road."

The couple, who moved to Melbourne from Mangalore in India more than 45 years ago, said they had put down deep roots in the Glen Waverley/Wheelers Hill community and loved the fact that the Brandon Park village is just ďŹ ve minutes away from all their friends and neighbours.

"We're moving out of this house after 45 years so it will be a big change!" says Premila.

The couple, who travel overseas at least twice a year, also liked the secure environment the village offered.

"We do a fair bit of travelling so that was on our minds. We can just lock up and go," says Ebbie.

The couple are very community-focused, Ebbie with his golf and tennis, and Premila who is a regular at the gym, Probus, and Life Activities Club.

They also have seven grandchildren who they adore and see every week for a family get-together.

"It is good that is in the area we like and are used to, and close to all the things we do, besides having all the levels of care and security," says Premila.

"I know of at least two others from my walking club who are signed up for Brandon Park and I'm looking forward to making new friends too."

7

8

Ryman Times - Brandon Park Edition

Brand new 2 bedroom independent apartment

plans available now

Please contact Dale or Michelle on 03 9271 3636 for more information

Charity partner announced Alzheimer’s Australia is Weary Dunlop’s charity partner for the year. We are delighted to be able to support the charity, which does a huge amount of work across Australia for Alzheimer’s and dementia sufferers and their families. Dementia is regarded as one of the biggest

public health challenges facing Australia. There are currently more than 413,000 Australians living with dementia and the number is expected to grow to 1.1. million by 2056.

Every dollar raised for Alzheimer’s Australia by our village this year will be matched by Ryman Healthcare.

Address: 6 Brandon Park Drive, Wheelers Hill Phone: 03 9271 3636 www.rymanhealthcare.com.au