Victoria’s new Governor visits Vasey RSL Care

11 August 2015: The newly appointed Governor of Victoria, Linda Dessau, visited our Vasey Brighton East residential care facility on Monday, 10 August for a roundtable briefing and to meet our residents at afternoon tea. The Governor’s official visit was suggested by the State President of the RSL Victoria, retired Major General David McLachlan.

The visit was the perfect opportunity for our Chief Executive, Janna Voloshin, and our General Manager of Residential Services, Lee-Anne Suryn, to conduct a roundtable briefing to explain the history and the purpose of Vasey RSL Care for the Governor. It also gave Janna and Lee the chance to showcase the facilities at Vasey Brighton East and present VBE as a benchmark for all our residential care facilities.

The Governor was formally welcomed to Vasey Brighton East by the Chair of Vasey RSL Care Board, David Paroissien who introduced her to Major General McLachlan and his wife, Louise, as well as Mrs Margaret Miles, the Victorian President of War Widows Guild of Australia.

“It was very important to have both David McLachlan and Margaret Miles at the roundtable with the Governor because they represent the two organisations which were amalgamated in 2004 to create Vasey RSL Care. That is our history and our heritage,” said CEO, Janna Voloshin.

As part of the roundtable briefing, the Governor was shown the short DVD documenting the “Heroes Wish Project” which took six veterans to Canberra to attend the 2015 Centenary of ANZAC Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial. Janna also presented her with a poppy knitted by a resident of VBE and a specially bound commemorative photo album of images showing aspects of daily life for residents and their carers at Vasey RSL Care.

After the briefing, the Governor joined the residents in a specially catered afternoon tea, where she spent almost three quarters of an hour chatting casually with veterans and war widows, hearing their stories and getting their personal impressions of life at Vasey RSL Care.