Woonona's Bucket List Club from Eileen Anderson House is about to take-off, buckle up

Once you've crossed that threshold, strap yourself in. Literally.

Eight members of the club from Anglicare's Eileen Armstrong House in Woonona will buckle up for their first adventure on Monday - a helicopter ride.

After that, lifestyle co-ordinator Ruth Hartill-Law has a biplane joy flight pencilled in, a glam makeover, a scenic trike ride, ballroom dancing lessons, deep-sea fishing and going to the footy to watch the Dragons.

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It's all about living life, she said, even when you've already done a bucketload of it.

"All you need is a bit of willingness and imagination for people to enjoy things like this," Ms Hartill-Law said.

A supportive manager, a facility happy to share some resources and family members keen for their elderly loved ones to keep experiencing life also helps.

"We were really keen to hear from residents and families about what activities they wanted to do, particularly coming out of COVID," residential manager Antje Badger explained. "So we surveyed them and started with a bus trip.

"We borrowed the bus from St Luke's at Dapto and it's gone from there really. The enthusiasm has been quite remarkable."

The residents were told the sky was the limit and to "dream big".

"And they've come up with quite a number of things -, like sailing, going to the beach as there's one lady who's keen to dip her toes in the water after many, many years of missing that," Ms Badger said.

What better way to start than with a scenic Touchdown Helicopter ride on Monday? Eight of the nine-strong club will head skywards, and so keen were carers to be involved a ballot was needed to organise who would support the adventurers on the first activity.

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Staff will have Go-Pros to record the occasion which will allow the excitement to be re-lived time and again when memories might fail.

"We've got one gentleman that's going up and he has advanced dementia, but for 30 minutes, he is gonna have the best time of his life," Ms Hartill-Law said.

Just as exciting for Ms Badger is the fact that five families will be at Shellharbour Airport to watch their loved ones' dreams become reality.

But it doesn't stop there.

Ms Hartill-Law is so motivated by the project she wants every residential aged care home in the nation to establish a Bucket List Club.

"Why not? Why shouldn't we listen to these wonderful people and let them live every day?"

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