News from Silver Rainbow

Bernard in the media again!

Bernard, one of our oldest members, features in an article in the January 2010 edition of Pride Life magazine, The article "Life stories" by Steve Bustin, starts on Page 25 and includes reminiscences by Bernard and other older LGBT people, with a nice mention of Silver Rainbow.

Shortlisted again by Pink Paper readers

In 2010, for the second year running, Silver Rainbow was shortlisted in the nationwide Pink Paper Readers' Awards. This year we came fourth. Apparently the number of people voting nationwide was considerably greater this year, even though the Pink Paper is now an Internet-only publication.

The finalists in the "Best older LGBT group" this year were as follows:

Out in the City, Manchester
Age Concern, Opening Doors Central London
Metro 50+, Greenwich (a couple of us visited the Metro Centre on the 30^th of March)
Silver Rainbow Lunch Club, Croydon
Armistead Centre, Liverpool.

LGBT History Month celebration – special filmshow and some good news

Silver Rainbow celebrated LGBT History Month on 12 February 2010, with a special showing, after our regular lunch at the Waterside Centre, of the new short film Latecomers, directed by Olivia Humphreys. Many thanks to UNACC for facilitating the use of their main room and their projection equipment for the showing. On the same day, we heard that we had once again been shortlisted in the "Older LGBT Groups" category in the Pink Paper Readers Awards. For more about this, see our press release.

Full of Life Week

Full of Life (logo) Silver Rainbow took part in Croydon's Full of Life week in October 2009. We had a display in the Croydon Clocktower foyer from Monday to Thursday, our regular lunch was featured in the Full of Life Brochure, and we were on show at the Full of Life finale on Friday in the Fairfield Halls.

Silver Rainbow in Soho

We had a stall at Age Concern's "LGBT 50+ Information Fair" (4 September 2009). Roger and Ross manned the stall, and several other Silver Rainbow members were in the audience for the presentations. The photo shows Roger and Ross in their Silver Rainbow polo shirts, with Nick from Age Concern Camden's Opening Doors project.

Radio programme

One of our members was the subject of a programme ("An Interior Life") on BBC Radio 4 (5pm, 23 August 2009). We heard Bernard speaking about his life as a gay man, his situation after the death of his partner, and the difference that Silver Rainbow had made to his life. The programme was reviewed in the Daily Telegraph on 25 August.

Museum visit

On 6 July 2009 we had a very successful visit to Croydon Museum, where we were allowed to see and handle some of the Museum's collection of artefacts, followed by lunch at the Clocktower Café.

Recognition by Pink Paper readers

In 2009, Silver Rainbow came third in its category, in the nationwide Pink Paper Readers' Awards. For more about this, see our December 2008 and February 2009 Press Releases and our certificate.

The finalists in the "Best older LGBT group" were as follows:

Out in the City, Manchester
Age Concern Camden Older Gay Men’s Group, London
Silver Rainbow, Croydon
50+ Group, The Metro Centre, Greenwich
Older Lesbian Network, London.

Helping to promote Croydon

On 17 November 2008, Silver Rainbow was represented at an event to promote Croydon as a "Beacon authority" for its work for older people, and on Wednesday 29^th April we had a stall at Croydon's Festival of Positive Ageing (part of the Cultural Olympiad) at the Parchmore Community Centre, Thornton Heath.

Healthy Eating

Fit as a Fiddle (logo) Julia from Age Concern Croydon came to our lunch in July 2008, and introduced us to the concepts of healthy eating as part of the "Fit as a Fiddle" programme, and this was followed by Age Concern-sponsored lunches as at a variety of local venues. As part of the same programme, one of our members attended classes in nutrition skills in September and October 2008, and on the 21st of October several of us took part in a workshop at the Glenthorne Avenue Allotment Hall, Croydon.

The Fit as a Fiddle programme has now come to an end, but we're continuing to have a second lunchtime venue every month, still with an emphasis on healthy eating.

So far we've been to the following locations:

the Age Concern Croydon offices (30/10/08); Julia quizzed us on healthy eating, showed us how to make smoothies, and presented us with a liquidiser.
The Boulevard, South Croydon (21/05/09, 19/11/09, 25/02/10, 6/05/10).
The Brief, Croydon (29/01/09, 4/06/09, 3/12/09, 25/3/10).
the Clocktower Café, Croydon (28/08/08, 27/08/09, 26/08/10).
The Coach House Café, Coombe Wood (30/07/09, 1/07/10).
Coombe Lodge, Croydon (25/09/08, 26/02/09, 22/4/10).
the Foxley Hatch, Purley (24/09/09, 29/07/10).
the Glenthorne Avenue Allotment Hall (23/04/09); a healthy vegetarian soup made and cooked on the premises under Julia's direction.
Los Toreros, Crystal Palace (2/03/09, 2/07/09, 22/10/09, 28/01/10, 3/06/10).
the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon (27/11/08).

Working with Age Concern

On 27 June 2008, Ross from Silver Rainbow assisted with a training session on LGBT matters (presented by Age Concern England) for Age Concern Croydon staff.

Lunches at the Waterside Centre

We've been having lunch at the Waterside Centre (courtesy of UNACC) every month from February 2008. We adopted the name "Silver Rainbow" in May 2008.