Another busy start to the year! In January we hit the ground running & overhauled sections of our HQ to streamline our processes even more. Volunteer sessions have been held every few weeks with loads of new faces joining in including 3 Duke of Edinburgh Award students building up their volunteer hours with us.
Aid relief has also gone out to VACCA & SECASA who received packs for children fleeing domestic violence. Emerge received new clothing & shoes, & food relief went to BayCISS & Grace Heart Community Church thanks to a generous grant from #BaysideCityCouncil. Fitted for Work also received a decent amount of good work clothes for people in need.
Food relief is ongoing through 2023 as the need is huge & growing. Thanks to a grant from #CityofFrankston we delivered non perishable food to Theodora’s Cheerful Givers & Peninsula Christian Care. The lovelies at Beta Sigma Phi are also delivering non perishable foods to us periodically that go into our ongoing drives.
This year we have partnered with #BaysideCityCouncil to hold non perishable food drives through local schools. Food raised will go to BayCISS & Grace Heart Community Church who feed hundreds/thousands in need & are struggling to keep up with the growing demand.
We are now a collection point for DV Safe phones who repair & update old mobile phones to be given to people escaping domestic violence situations. We’re off to a great start & will collect mobile phones ongoing as well as old prescription glasses.
Gifts for Mums fleeing domestic violence have been given to SECASA & a large donation of several hundred items went to Impact for Women or their packs. Another load of aid also went to Compass Care for Ukranian families relocating locally & a few members have also done callouts for specific items for Ukranian families in need. We have also helped a family who lost everything in a local house fire.
We thank #BaysideCityCouncil who awarded us a grant to hold this year’s Volunteer Morning Tea which will be at an exciting new location to be announced soon!
For our aged care support we have members of the community making amazing fiddle rugs for dementia patients as well as the usual round of stunning quilts by our generous community & the super talented Bay Quilters. Kogo has supplied us with beanies to go toward our aged care & homeless initiatives coming up soon too.
We thank David Southwick MP for mentioning our founder & President Deb Brook in his speech in parliament acknowledging International Women’s Day.
On the fundraising front we have raised $5,178 in this years People’s Choice Raffle. We are 100% volunteer run & unfunded so this amount will make a huge difference in our many vital initiatives.
Finally, we were invited to Moongala Women’s Community House for the launch of the current round of power saver bonus & had a chat with the premier Dan Andrews & Nick Staikos MP and discussed a bit about what we do.
