Aruma Palooza gets Nowra locals grooving

The Nowra community ‘stepped right up’ for Aruma Community Hub’s inaugural Aruma Palooza on Friday, June 14.

The new hub, which opened in January, ensured it was all hands on deck, with participants and staff pitching in to help host this feel-good festival.

Aruma Regional Manager, Community, Wayne Adamson, said the event had a carnival vibe, showcasing the hub’s talented artistic and musical participants.

“It was a fully accessible event with carnival games, art and craft activities, a dance floor, and an array of delicious food lovingly prepared by our participants”, Wayne said.

We’re lucky to support several musically talented participants who busted out a few cover songs and some of their own material during our festival. Local musicians including our support worker Larry Burns, who has played gigs around Nowra, also added to the musical feast.

Local newspaper The South Coast Register attended and wrote a few stories about the event. Have a read below:

Inclusive community festival themed event at Aruma’s Nowra hub

South Coast Register Frozen Android

South Coast Register Aruma Palooza

The event offered an opportunity for local people with a disability to check out the hub’s brilliant facilities and programs, while also welcoming jobseekers in the area to consider Aruma support worker vacancies based at the facility. See more details here.

Our goal is to grow our hub to support more people with a disability in Nowra and surrounding areas, so it was great to see some new faces coming to our Palooza to check out facilities. We also met some locals considering working with us,

Our first Aruma Palooza was just one of many ways we love to connect with our local community, and, given its success this year, we hope it may become an annual event.

As one of Aruma’s newest community hubs, the Nowra facility has a range of features including large activity spaces, with gaming consoles and computers, a library space and pool table, a kitchen for cooking classes, a flourishing vegetable garden, and a sensory room for participants to relax and regulate if required.