It definitely feels like Spring is here! Whilst the social workers, midwives and Maternal and Child Health Nurses we interact with have even more challenges, navigating restrictions and balancing the needs of the families they support, we are continuing to operate throughout the week, collecting donations from our drop off locations, then preparing bundles for families in need.
In many ways, thank you doesn’t seem enough right now. We are ever so grateful to every single person who continues to support the 10,000 local kids living in poverty.
Volunteer village – please vote for Mel!
One of our wonderful volunteers, Mel, is a finalist in the Westfield Tuggerah Community Heroes!! We need your help to get behind Mel and vote and share – the voting closes on September 14th.
As a child, Mel knew what it felt like to go without, so she always goes the extra mile for children and families in need. Mel volunteers for 20 hours a week helping put together packages of clothing, linen and baby items for caseworkers helping disadvantaged local children. She can’t help but be touched by the children’s stories and takes extra care to include special items that meet individual needs. “It’s wonderful when caseworkers tell us their clients are so relieved and overwhelmed on receiving the items we gave them,” she says.
Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities, with the three top finalists per Westfield centre each awarded a $10,000 grant. https://www.westfield.com.au/tuggerah/story/1bEyE5AJLVB4VqGfhBp7ba/local-heroes-2020
Please can you vote & share today?
Behind the scenes at We Care
This month, we take you behind the scenes with one of our great volunteers, Rita. In these very challenging times with so many fundraising opportunities no longer available, Rita has recently created two very successful initiatives:
Fundraiser 1 – Rita took advantage of a brief window of opportunity to make and sell hundreds of CoVID-19 masks. A small team of us worked to cut material, sew masks, take orders, package requests and makes trips to the post office – but Rita was the powerhouse and spent days making masks. An amazing effort that raised close to $2000.
Fundraiser 2 – On a roll, Rita then organised a garage sale to raise funds. This was a personal garage sale with lots of help from friends, and raised a further wonderful $765.
When not fundraising, Rita leads our Wednesday team, runs our Toy Section and fills in whenever needed. An incredible dynamo! And one more talent, Rita makes clothes for our dolls. No naked dolls at We Care!
Here’s Rita, busy packing a van load of items to be sent out to local families.
If you’ve got an idea for a fundraiser to support We Care, please get in touch!
Program news – The Wheels on the Bus
The families you help often live with significant barriers that create social isolation. We aim to keep
disadvantaged children safe, social, mobile and connected to support services through the distribution of prams, car seats and baby carriers. We re-home capsules, reversible car seats and older children’s booster seats. We put great care into providing the right ‘Wheels on the Bus’ whether it’s a carrier for a
quick trip to the supermarket, a pram that will definitely fit on a bus or a newborn car seat to bring baby safely home from hospital.
Why we care
We offer a completely judgement free service. The families you help come from all walks of life, the reason for their background isn’t important to us – but helping them out is! Our quality standard is that we want to delight a family when they receive their items from us. Having less doesn’t mean second best and we continue to provide as many great quality community donated items to as many families as we can.
What we need next
Older children’s clothing is always top of our “most needed” list – we know older kids are more likely to have clothes for longer and wear them out. We would love to receive any great quality older kids’ clothing. Our drop off locations are throughout the Coast, and you can see them on our website here: https://www.wecareconnect.org.au/drop-off-locations/
At a time when we’re being called on more than ever before, thank you for everything you do for We Care Connect. Take good care of yourself and your loved ones.
Warm regards,
The We Care Team
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