Christmas festivities, break-up parties, and time spent with family and friends. This news round-up showcases some of our best summer activities at St Michaels.

Independent Services

The end of 2018 proved to be a fun and exciting time for our participants in Independent Services. The Wednesday and Friday cooking groups busily prepared their food and set up for their Christmas break-up parties. The groups took home scrumptious goody bags filled with the treats they’d made. The craft groups also finished their Christmas projects and took home the snowmen they’d created.

As a reward for their efforts, our low impact exercise group were treated to an end of year ice cream at McDonald’s. Members of our self-defence group were awarded their certificates of participation. Our garden survived the three-week break thanks to Kelly’s generous help.

Youth Break

At Youth Break, we took full advantage of the summer weather. We joined in with the Queen Victoria museum activities at Inveresk and Myrtle Park, exploring local wildlife and reptiles. Chloe got to hold a blue-tongue lizard, and Albert got his face painted and made a badge. We also went exploring at Ulverstone and went to Bridestowe Lavender Farm while it was in full bloom. Rowallen highly recommends their chocolate ice cream. We also ventured to Ross to learn about the local history. Kristen enjoyed exploring the old church and the streets and took photos with Rachel.

Day Program

Our groups had started planning their Christmas meals as early as November. They made beautiful Christmas decorations during painting and art. Our Paddock to Plate group spent time planting out in the garden so there would be fresh vegetables to use in the cooking program. It was great to see everyone accomplish in their life skills and learning activites.

Over summer, Richard did a fantastic job of keeping the plants watered. Meanwhile, Andrew and Katie-Lee joined the Wednesday cooking group and learned many new skills. The Tuesday Metro bus group took a trip to the Cinema to watch The Grinch. Tony constructed an enormous Lego tower, and Ben assembled enough jigsaw puzzles to cover two tables. On New Year’s Eve, we had morning tea and said farewell to the year.

In-home Tenancy

Our Christmas period had many exciting highlights. We all very much enjoyed the St Michaels Christmas dinner and receiving our End of Year Reports. It was great to look over the goals we had set and to feel proud of our achievements.

Some of our participants went away for Christmas to be with family and friends or to travel around Tasmania. Some of us remained on campus to enjoy an exquisite Christmas lunch at the Newstead Hotel. We spent the rest of the summer taking advantage of the glorious weather, having barbecues, swimming and going to the beach. We also resumed our activities in 2019 like our walking groups, basketball, and Wednesday night dinners.