Hi, my name is Shahnaz Pendergast, I am a big believer that everybody has a right to happiness and I want to be a source of helping people lead a happier life. 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. This belief of bringing happiness to others stems right back to 22 years ago from seeing my grandmother in a nursing home. 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, I did some research about bringing happiness to people living in nursing homes and I discovered the benefits of Pet therapy. At this time, I had a dog named "Gerry", “What if I could take Gerry to nursing homes, I mean who doesn’t like to pat and cuddle a dog?”, so it was decided, I was going to take Gerry into nursing homes for the residents to pat. 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, VIC 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, the residents would bring pictures of their animals to show me and talk about, and Gerry loved it as the residents would share their morning tea biscuits with him! 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. Moving onto now, I recently watched the ABC show "Old people homes for 4yr 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, and I most humbled by the support of my local community who all share my vision, to help the elderly live a happier life.