Lynne Sharp: keeping active together

Tell us about your group…

We have 130 members and we’re all different ages. The youngest is 55 and our oldest member is Gladys, who is 103. She started the group in 1984 and is still one of members today. She is still active and gets up dancing whenever we have parties.

We have a main meeting once a month and we also have games meetings, we go bowling, out for lunches and walks and also enjoy lots of day trips and holidays.

How did you begin organising trips?

My husband and I went along to the group to do a talk and the treasurer couldn’t stand up so I helped her and they gave us a form to join the club. They needed somebody to take over organising the holidays as the chairman who was doing them had become ill, so I took over from him.

Back in those days there was only 35 members and now we’re up to 130. Our holidays have space for up to 48 people on the coach and we fill them every time and our members can bring family and friends along if there is space.

What sorts of holidays do you go on?

We only do UK holidays at the moment, but I am trying to venture abroad for 2027 and I am looking at Ireland as an option. It is mainly to seaside towns because the group love going for a walk at the seaside and visiting museums and gardens centres. We go on around four holidays per year which vary in price, so everyone gets the opportunity to go and they range from three to seven days.

My group really enjoy having entertainment at the hotels too, so live music and shows are always popular and anywhere with bowling is always a hit.

What kind of day trips do your group most enjoy?

They love living museums such as Beamish and the Black Country Living Museum where they can go back in time and see what it was like back when they were younger. We’ve been to the Ramsgate Tunnels, which are quite close to us and the group love it there because of all the wartime history. They liked listening to what happened underground.

We like to have a guide so we can find out what actually happened and really get lots of information. We had a guided tour at Historic Dockyard Chatham recently and that was very interesting as we were able to find out about the history and why it was built and really understand what the dockyard is about.

We also like a day trip where you can have some lunch and entertainment and we try and vary where we go. We recently went to Southend and had a nice lunch whilst a singer performed.

What trips have you got coming up?

We’re going to Babbacombe for a tribute weekend and we have a mystery turkey and tinsel holiday which all of the group members have been trying to guess and trick me into telling them where we’re going. We’re also going for a Christmas lunch in London.

Next year we’re going to the Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth and we’re also going to Ilfracombe with Alfa Travel. Towards the end of next year we’re going to Weston-Super-Mare for the carnival at Bridgewater.

You’re also part of KentARA. What does that group do?

I’m the secretary of KentARA and it allows all of the different Active Retirement Association groups in Kent to share ideas for trips and activities with each other so we can bring new ideas to the group. It’s a good exchange of knowledge and we come together every year for a jamboree. Last year we went to Buxton for a holiday together and we had about 80 people.

Have you got any useful tips for other GTOs?

Go out and do your research. It’s helpful to look at the place you’re planning on taking the group before you go because you need to find out if it will be of interest to others. Meeting representatives from the attractions and venues helps with that too.