Most 21-year-old university students are busy socialising or cramming for exams, but for the past year, Bevan Gleeson, has managed to also find time to volunteer with Ageing With Grace.

Ageing With Grace is a government funded, not-for-profit organisation that was founded by Esis Tawfik in August 2022, and has been funded for the Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme since July 2023.

The scheme aims to reduce loneliness and social isolation among older people by enhancing social connections through regular face-to-face visits with volunteers.

“I’d been wanting to do some volunteering again, I’ve done little bits here and there, like Mother’s Day Classic fun runs and stuff like that, but I wanted to do something consistent and something a little bit more personal,” Bevan, an international relations and politics, philosophy, economics student, says. 

“I got matched with the lovely Ron, my good friend.

“I was a bit, I guess, apprehensive at the start, because to be very honest, Ron and I have nothing in common. 

“Ron loves trains more than anything else, like old locomotive steam engines and I don’t even like cars.

“But we got along really quickly. He’s a very ridiculously silly man and I’m a  man as well, so that was kind of our middle ground.”

Bevan visits 75-year-old Ron every week at the Goodwin Village in Monash, and says the main things they do is watch old locomotive videos, some of which Ron himself filmed, listen to old albums, eat lunch and just enjoy each other’s company.

Ron is also wheelchair bound, so to make sure he can still get out and about, Bevan says they like to do a couple of laps around the garden when possible. 

“I’ve also been trying to get a bus booked to take him to the old railway museum, so I’m hoping to do that sometime soon,” he says.

It’s not just Ron who has benefitted from the program though, with Bevan saying the experience made him realise he needed to stop isolating himself.

“I think more importantly, I’ve lost a little bit of, I guess, foolishness,” he says.

“There’s been a big theme in the last year of my life, and Ron was a big part of it, where I’m just realising that I’ve just wasted a lot of time. 

“And I’ve wasted a lot of time, not spending time with people, you know, isolating myself, and frankly, for me, a 21-year-old guy at uni, Ron is the last person that I would think to spend my time with, but I don’t really feel as calm, or feel as present, or as relaxed as when I just kind of sit and watch kids looking for yabbies in the lake with him. 

Bevan, who moved to Canberra eight years ago, says it has also helped him overcome the, at times, insular nature of the city.

“I was born in the States, in New York, and dad was a diplomat,” he says.

“He ended up being asked to be the ambassador for Libya. So we lived in Libya, and then lived in Egypt for a little bit.

“Canberra’s a bit of a bubble, but there are some days where I wouldn’t want to leave the house, but I don’t know if it’s an obligation or whatever it was, but yeah, it’s been great.”

Overall, he says the program has been a hugely transformative experience, and encourages more young people to get involved. 

“It’ll get you outside of yourself,” he says.

“It’s worth doing. You’ll feel good about yourself, and, you know, these people deserve friends as well.

“Without these programs, without these NGOs, stuff like that, people are left behind, a lot of these people are left behind.

“That’s a big part of why I want to do the work that my dad does. A big part of his work was co-ordinating teams for humanitarian relief, for infrastructure development, for community support and communication programs. And this is kind-of my little toe in the water.”

ageingwithgrace.org.au.