Community House program receives huge support

TORQUAY Community House (TCH) is encouraging people to enjoy the outdoors, launching its ‘Let’s Go Outside’ program last month.

As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease in a year that has seen people confined to their homes, Torquay Community House co-ordinator Laura Connor said it was important to provide the community with an avenue to get outdoors and do some fun activities, and the response had been resounding.

“The idea came about because we were all working from home and in isolation, so we thought, what can we do? We’ll go outside.

“It’s fantastic, it’s an initiative of the Surf Coast Community Houses (Lorne, Deans Marsh, Anglesea, Winchelsea and Torquay).

“It ticked quite a few boxes, people were being active, getting outside, getting their vitamin D and socialising.

“The feedback we’ve been getting has been very positive.”

Ms Connor felt while 2020 had provided a lot of hardship to the Surf Coast community, an extra appreciation for the outdoors and the stunning locations in the region had come from it.

“I think COVID has certainly made us more appreciative of the outdoors, when you couldn’t do a lot of things we maybe took for granted, I certainly think people are more appreciative of it now.”

TCH hosts five half-hour sessions a week, with each day offering something different.

Monday is a boot scooting session, Tuesday is qi gong, Wednesday is all about the kids with two sessions of the Bells and Beats program due to popular demand, while tai chi is on Thursday before a yoga session rounds out the week of activities.

The programs were originally aimed at the older generation but following huge amounts of interest it has been expanded to all ages.

Sessions begin at 10am each day at the Quay Reserve, Torquay North, just off Horseshoe Bend Road.

The existing level of COVID-19 restrictions mean sessions can only have 10 patrons, so registering online is required.

Head to torquaycommunityhouse.org.au/let-s-go-outside.html to register. For information on the respective community houses, head to their Facebook pages, with each house holding different activities.