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Newsletter

September 2020

Hi,

As an essential community service, Geelong Mums has continued to operate through the COVID-19 crisis, including restrictions and lockdowns. Indeed our colleagues at St Kilda Mums have also continued to operate, even during stage 4 lockdown.

The challenges are huge, as once again we are closed to our amazing volunteers, and generous goods donors. Thankfully, we can still receive donations via post and courier. We’ve never been more excited to see the postie turn up at the warehouse!

Social workers, midwives and Maternal and Child Health Nurses have even more challenges, navigating restrictions and balancing the needs of the families they support within their own COVID-19 Safe Plans.

The families you support live with significant barriers that cut them off from support and their community. If you had told me at the start of 2020 that we would all be able to relate to this because of a pandemic, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

Since 1 July 2020, because of the kindness of our amazing community, 807 babies and children received essential nursery equipment. Anything from a pram to enable a family to leave the house. To a cot, mattress and linen to ensure a baby has somewhere warm and safe to sleep.

The generosity we have seen from our community has been nothing short of incredible.

Thank you just doesn’t feel like enough right now. We will forever be grateful to every single person who continues to keep the warehouse doors open so we can support babies and children in their time of need.

I saw this recently on social media and in case you haven’t seen it, I wanted to share it with you.

What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?

What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?

A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw, that it finally forces us to grow.

A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.

A year we finally accept the need for change.

Declare change. Work for change. Become the change.

A year we finally band together, instead of pushing each other further apart.

2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather the most important year of them all.

Leslie Dwight

I’m so thankful that our community has been part of the change for many years now. At a time when we’re being called on more than ever before, thank you for everything you do for Geelong Mums. Let’s continue, together, in 2020 and for many years to come.

Take good care of yourself and your loved ones.

Warm regards,

Julia

Operating under Stage 3 restrictions

While we can't open our doors to volunteers and donated goods being dropped off at the warehouse, we are still very much in need of all the items that we give out to families.

We’re so thankful to everyone who has posted something to us or done some online shopping recently. These special deliveries keep our stock levels up so we can continue helping vulnerable families in need. The turnaround time is quick with most items being distributed to families within a week.

If you would like to send essential nursery items directly to our warehouse, please see below for alternate options to get your donations to us.

Australia post

If you have items that can be posted, or ordered online, we would be so grateful if you could use this option. Our address is:

Geelong Mums

110 Balliang St

South Geelong VIC 3220

Courier service

We can arrange courier service in Geelong and surrounding suburbs, for $15 to cover costs. The courier can come to your house and pick up donations of larger items including prams, car seats, baby baths, bouncers and high chairs. This will allow us to safely pick up donations (including clothing, nappies, toiletries etc too!) from donor's homes.

Please email us [mailto:[email protected]] if you wish to learn more about this option.

Shop and Drop

In conjunction with Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre, we have a Shop and Drop donation box located outside Target at the centre. Shoppers are encouraged to purchase new items at the Centre and donate directly to Geelong Mums. Please note, we can only accept new items so hold onto your preloved goods until we can reopen or please use one of the other options.

The direct impact of your support

As we face this difficult time, it’s important to reflect on the families we have been able to assist because of your continued support.

The month of July highlighted that 34% of families we helped were negatively affected by COVID-19. Loss of employment being the most common effect. The number of children affected by poor mental health in their family has doubled compared to this time last year.

We would like to thank all our supporters for your generous support in the past that has allowed us to be in this position today.

Here’s a beautiful feedback card sharing the incredible impact you have on the families we support.

Last financial year in numbers

Geelong Mums assisted 6,262 children from 2,751 families throughout Victoria in the last financial year.

With your help, this included:

3,882 clothing and linen bundles2000 baby and adult toiletry packs1,957 toy and book packs 389 car seats310 prams 125 cots

And thousands more items… a total of 18,574 items in fact.

We did this while having to close our doors to goods donors and volunteers for close to 14 weeks. And this is only because of you - our wonderful supporters who have continued to donate financially, share our social media posts, talk about us to your friends and generally share the love.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this possible!

Annual Giving Day

Thank you to everyone for supporting our biggest Giving Day ever on 17 June. Just over $75,000 was donated on the day to Geelong Mums. With all donations quadrupled by generous matchers, that’s an incredible $307,000.

It was heartwarming to see all of the different ways that our community give, share and care for Geelong Mums. Since 1 July, 807 babies and children have received essential nursery equipment. This money will ensure that we can support every family who turns to us between now and Christmas time.

Mother's Day Lunch 2020

It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to announce the cancellation of the 2020 Geelong Mums Mother’s Day Luncheon at Mt Duneed Estate.

Back in March, due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, we made the decision to postpone the May event to October. Never in our wildest dreams (well nightmares really) did we think that six months later we would have to completely cancel the event due to the continuation of the crisis.

However, best laid plans and all that.

As our major event of the year, the cancellation has had a major impact on our fundraising. The silver lining is that many businesses and individuals have decided to donate their sponsorships, prizes and tickets back to Geelong Mums - what an amazing community we live in.

Believe me when I say that we are already planning the next fabulous event and we can't wait until we can all get together again and continue to share these wonderful stories with you.

Community support

Can you imagine running the length of the Great Ocean Road from Barwon Heads to Warrnambool? Well this is exactly what Levi Turner, a fabulous supporter of Geelong Mums is going to do.

From October 19-23, Levi is going to run 300km along the spectacular Great Ocean Road and raise money to support Geelong Mums in the process. His target is an astonishing $10,000 so if you’d like to offer your support to Levi please send him a message and donate here [[link removed]].

We would like to say a huge thank you to Levi for this amazing effort and wish him safe travels for October.

If you are interested in finding out more about fundraising for Geelong Mums, please email us [mailto:[email protected]].

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110 Balliang Street,

Geelong South VIC Australia

Geelong Mums acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respect to elders past, present and emerging.

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