Thanks for giving a gift that matters
19 January 2022
It appears that the last two years have not dulled the generous community spirit of Canberrans! In our annual End of Year appeal, we were blown away by how the local community continued to step up to help vulnerable people within the ACT.
At the start of the appeal, we set what we expected to be stretch goals:
- to raise $10,000 in donations for our housing programs (funding hampers and gifts for the families in the programs and any additional funds going to our YHomes project)
- to source food donations to keep our Lanyon Food Hub stocked over the festive break while their usual deliveries didn’t occur for three weeks.
Imagine our surprise when, within three weeks, we reach our $10,000 goal!
But at YWCA Canberra, we believe in stretching ourselves to get the most benefit for our clients, so we decided to double our goal to $20,000. And, with much generous support from Canberra businesses and individuals, we made it!
We would like to particularly thank the Canberra Innovation Network, NAB and Parker Coles Curtin Lawyers for their generous corporate donations.
The staff in our housing teams loved spreading the holiday cheer by delivering hampers and movie vouchers to their clients in the days before our end of year close down.
One woman who the team had just organised a home for in December exclaimed “You ladies are the best! We are so excited for Christmas, can’t wait.”
Another woman told us:
“The support I have received has been incredible. I am so grateful. The food hamper was very generous, and the gift vouchers were an unexpected delight! The children enjoyed some lovely special treats, and we had some great meals made from the wonderful food that was gifted to us. Thank you again for everything!”
At our Mura Lanyon Youth and Community Centre (MLYCC), the Lanyon Food Hub clients were so pleased and thankful for the efforts in ensuring they could have a festive holiday season. Here are just a few quotes from our clients as they picked up their holiday hampers:
- ‘You are all very lovely people for doing what you do to help the community.’
- ‘The MLYCC have really helped me and my family during this lockdown with the hampers.’
- ‘I appreciate the MLYCC for staying open to continue providing food to the community.’
We want to pass that appreciation on to everyone who provided food donations, primarily families of children enrolled in our early childhood and school age education and care services.
Supporting our most vulnerable residents requires a whole-of-community approach, and results like this show that Canberrans genuinely want to make a real difference in people’s lives.
Again, thank you! We look forward to working with the Canberra community over the coming year to continue to improve lives in our region.
Tags: Canberra Community, CBR, community, covid-19, food hub, fundraising