Help for students starting the school year

Avenel Active Inc is helping around 30 students and their families at the Avenel Primary School to start the year off well. Last week, President Jen Arnold and Secretary Helen Gwilliam gave Kmart vouchers to school principal, Ross Davis.

“ e purpose is to help families who are struggling nancially to buy some essentials for school such as uniforms, stationery, shoes, toiletries or other basic necessities,” said Ms Arnold.

e vouchers are from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal’s Back to School program which this year funded nearly $800,000 worth of vouchers for students across Australia. Running since 2005, FRRR’s Back to School program provides $50 vouchers which can be redeemed at Target, Kmart or select local businesses to remote, rural and regional students and families in need. is funding is from a range of philanthropic and corporate foundations. Major contributors are the Origin Energy Foundation and Portland House Foundation, but there are also many much smaller donations to FRRR which collectively funds this voucher program.

e donor for these vouchers for Avenel families, is the Seymour District Charitable Fund, a subfund of Australian Communities Foundation. Representative of the Fund, Carolyn Munckton, was also present to give the vouchers to Principal Davis.

“A $50 voucher might not sound like much, but to many it makes a real di erence,” said Carolyn. is small gi aims to help students start the school year happy, con dent and with the resources they need and to feel they t-in and not stand-out.”

Ross Davis commented that this type of support is very welcome and appreciated by the school and families.

“We are grateful to Avenel Active for applying for these Back to School vouchers and to the Seymour District Charitable Fund for wanting to help our local students and families. It is important that the school and its families are part of a wider community that cares.”

Pictured above: Carolyn Munckton from the Seymour District Charitable Fund was pleased to attend the handover to Avenel Primary School Principal, Ross Davis, of Back to School vouchers from Avenel Active Inc’s Jen Arnold and Helen Gwilliam.

Nagambie Senior Citizens

e rst social function for the year was a BBQ held at Goulburn Weir on Monday 27th February at 4pm. We were lucky with the weather and 32 members attended to enjoy the occasion. e social committee did a great job with the cooking and the salads were exceptional. anks go to all concerned for this successful outing. ere were a few outdoor games played and even Petanque had some new starters. Need them to come along to the Petanque Club, they were naturals!

We only need a few more to ll our Tram boat excursion on Tuesday 28th March. If you are unaware of this trip on the ferry across to Williamstown, have a look at their website, it is a really enjoyable trip. We need to have 49 to ll the boat requirement. We will be catching a bus to Docklands, morning tea and a boxed sh and chip lunch are provided. Drinks available on the boat. Cost will be $60. Let me know by phone or email (see below for details) e NOW Festival, went well, with the Seniors running the Costa Canoe Challenge again. anks to those who volunteered on the day, to ensure all ran to plan. We had a Tribute to the Emergency Services at the commencement of the event, and greatly appreciated Annabelle Cleeland doing the honors, with the speech and presentation of gi s to each of the services in attendance. She was joined by Sam Birrell and other sta members to form a team in the race. We are very grateful to their support.

Movie Day is also up and running, with 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, our next movie will be on Tuesday 14th March is “ e Man from Snowy River” come along at 1pm and enjoy the interval snacks and ice creams. For March 21st we have “ e Man from Snowy River 11”. Note that this is a week earlier than the usual fourth Tuesday, to allow for the Tramboat excursion.

Our turn to hold the Bunnings BBQ at Seymour is on Saturday 11th March, if you would like help by doing a shi , it would be great, let me know if you have any time to help.

Our next newsletter will be sent a er our committee meeting on Friday 3rd March and will include updates from the meeting.

Sometimes contacting all members about events is di cult as some do not read the newsletter or come to the Hall to ll out our lists for those wishing to attend events. Please give me your thoughts of how best to communicate, especially with those without email or social media on their phones.

Happy to email any interested people who would like to receive the newsletter monthly. Just email nagambieseniors@gmail.com to go on the list. Or phone Jill on 0419 567 580

We also wish to thank Go Nagambie for including our Club details on their website, check it out. https://www.gonagambie.com.au/live/communitygroups-and-clubs/nagambie-seniors