Local business woman, Shahnaz Pendergast of Eagle Point, owner of Shahnaz Vocal School and Dog Magnets – all natural dog products and biscuits, has added to her busy lifestyle and has started a community project called Generational Happiness Inc.
“I am a big believer that everybody has a right to happiness, I want to be a source of helping people lead a happier life,” Shahnaz said.
“My purpose in life is to bring happiness to as many people I can through many avenues. One of those avenues where I have so far achieved this is through my singing school. This is where I can motivate, support, encourage and help people of all ages build confidence to be a stronger, better version of themselves so they can shine in all aspects of their lives and what better way, a fun way, to achieve this, is through singing. But this is not enough.”
Shahnaz can pinpoint when she came to the realisation happiness would play an integral role in her life.
“This belief of bringing happiness to others stems right back to 22 years ago from seeing my grandmother in a nursing home,” she said.
“My grandmother had dementia and upon seeing her many times, I also felt empathetic for the residents around her, they looked so sad, I just wanted to put a smile on their faces.
“This notion was put on hold as after my grandmother passed, I moved to Melbourne, got married and started a family, I was in a happy place and now it was time for me to start making others happy.”
With this thought in mind Shahnaz did some research about bringing happiness to people living in nursing homes and discovered the benefits of pet therapy.
“At this time I had a dog named Gerry and thought “what if I could take Gerry to nursing homes, I mean who doesn’t like to pat and cuddle a dog?”, so it was I decided, I was going to take Gerry into nursing homes for the residents to pat,” Shahnaz said.
“After researching this I came across a program at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital who ran the PALS program. Once I joined this and went through the process, I was now able to take Gerry to a nursing home in Cheltenham every week.
“It was so amazing and rewarding. Seeing the smiles on the residents’ faces when Gerry and I came in was so beautiful.”
On many occasions Shahnaz said the residents would bring pictures of their animals to show her and talk about.
“Gerry loved it as the residents would share their morning tea biscuits with him,” she said.
“As the years went on and having more children I left the program and I started a singing school and then moved to a beautiful rural area in East Gippsland, called Eagle Point.
“I wanted to make a difference to people residing in aged care facilities in my new local area, so I started singing at various aged care facilities and eventually included some of my younger singing students to join me, which I must say, was a hit.”
The elderly people loved singing the nursery rhymes, but more so having the younger ones around, according to Shahnaz.
“Moving onto now, I recently watched the ABC show Old People Homes For Four Year Olds and the other Old People Homes for Teenagers, that was it, I must make this happen in my local area, which leads me to the creation of my community project.
“So far, the program is running very successfully where I have connected children from Paynesville Kindergarten with the residents at Paynesville Gardens Community Care and are very excited to have two primary schools joining the program very soon.
“I am most humbled by the support of my local community who all share my vision, to help people live a happier life.”
Shahnaz said there is an epidemic of loneliness In Australia and in recent years this is largely due to the pandemic where connections with family and friends were taken away beyond their control.
“Because of this our mental health has been hugely impacted,” she said.
“Regardless of age, we all want to feel less lonely, be more confident and happier, and this can be achieved by working together where friendships can be formed and the two generations can learn from each other.
“My mission is to help combat loneliness and isolation in aged care centres and retirement villages by bringing two generations together with the aim of transforming the lives of the elderly.”
You can support Shahnaz and Generational Happiness Inc in multiple ways. See the Facebook page for more information.
