The joy of trying new things in later life

The leader of Northampton u3a's New Experiences group, Mike, talks about the benefit of trying new things within a group. 

We are a group of members who like to try something new as a one-off experience. The group first started in 2019 when a small group of members wanted to go orienteering. This led to member Jenny forming the group. They went on to do kayaking and horse riding. I took over the group three years ago and Jenny is still involved in the group as deputy leader.

We have arranged numerous activities including darts, skittles, sledging, Go Ape walks in the trees, wall climbing, badminton, indoor and outdoor bowls, croquet, 10 pin bowling, a tour of a cheese making factory, tours of historic buildings, a canal cruise, archery and litter picking in conjection with the local Wombles. The ideas come from searches of local papers, word of mouth and brainstorming. We canvas the group members for their ideas so that they are part of the process, and then have a poll to see which ideas are the most popular.

You never know what you may be good at. I'm lucky, being very fit and healthy, as I can try all the challenges. That's not the case for a lot of our members but they can still join in and give things a try where they can. There's no competition. One lady is around 83 years old and won our darts tournament, having only played once or twice as a youngster. She was estatic - it was great to see.

When trying new things with other people, everyone is on the same playing field. Some will have more idea than others but everyone is friendly and helpful. The idea is to enjoy the experience. We have a vineyard tour this week, foot golf next month and a visit to a local property redesigned by Rennie Mackintosh the month after. We will shortly be sending out another survey to see what interesting experiences we hope to arrange for next year.