{"id":2554,"date":"2024-10-05T09:51:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T23:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/?p=2554"},"modified":"2024-10-05T09:51:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T23:51:35","slug":"40-years-of-ararat-probus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/2024\/10\/05\/40-years-of-ararat-probus\/","title":{"rendered":"40 years of Ararat Probus"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARARAT Probus Club has reached an important milestone as members prepare to celebrate the club\u2019s 40th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\n

Initially established as the Ararat Men\u2019s Probus Club in 1984, Probus has been a club of friendship, fun and acceptance for hundreds of Ararat retirees.<\/p>\n

Probus was the brainchild of Rotary International which in the 1960s wanted to create a social club for retired people.<\/p>\n

Around Australia, Probus Clubs have over 110,000 members.<\/p>\n

In 1984 when the Ararat club was formed, Allan Blachford was elected as the inaugural President of the club, Andy Meek Vice Presidents and Frank McGregor Secretary.<\/p>\n

Ararat resident Athol Graham, who celebrated his 99th<\/sup> birthday this year, is the only remaining member of the original committee and was club President in 1991\/92.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the club has had a number of meeting venues. In the early days, members would gather at the Ararat Bowls Club and then later at St Andrews Hall. Today the club meets at the Ararat West Uniting Church.<\/p>\n

Probus meetings usually feature a guest speaker and morning tea.<\/p>\n

The club also organises a monthly coffee morning and numerous activities through the year including an annual camp, a day trip which this year will cruse the Yarra River, a picnic in the Alexandra Gardens and the annual Probus Bowls Tournament.<\/p>\n

The \u2018men only\u2019 club made what is regarded as its biggest change in 2011 when it decided to admit women members.<\/p>\n

Three ladies were inducted \u2013 Bev Walker, Elaine Phillips and Marg Kilpatrick.<\/p>\n

Today, the club boasts 69 active members including 30 women.<\/p>\n

President Joy Wheeler said the club is a friendly place where many friendships have formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the club serves a great purpose. Back when it first started, when people retired they didn\u2019t have much to do, their social contact was gone. It served that (social) purpose back then and it still does to this day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial activity or just being sociable generally, even for just a cup of coffee, for people of our age is really important because otherwise you\u2019re just a hermit at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have made many good friends from Probus. The club serves a great purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ararat Probus Club plans to celebrate its 40th<\/sup> anniversary at a commemorative dinner next Thursday night at the Ararat RSL.<\/p>\n

The evening will be attended by local Probus members, former members and special guests.<\/p>\n

People interested in joining Ararat Probus can contact Joy Wheeler on 0409 529 726 or visit www.probusararat.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARARAT Probus Club has reached an important milestone as members prepare to celebrate the club\u2019s 40th anniversary.
\nInitially established as the Ararat Men\u2019s Probus Club in 1984, Probus has been a club of friendship, fun and acceptance for hundreds of Ararat retirees.
\nArarat resident Athol Graham, who celebrated his 99th birthday this year, is the only remaining member of the original committee and was club President in 1991\/92.
\nThe \u2018men only\u2019 club made what is regarded as its biggest change in 2011 when it decided to admit women members.
\nThree ladies were inducted \u2013 Bev Walker, Elaine Phillips and Marg Kilpatrick.
\nToday, the club boasts 69 active members including 30 women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_7845-Copy-4-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-Fc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2554"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}