WE DID IT!! Our incredible teams got 52,500 gifts into care packs for Mother’s Day 2500 women around Australia fleeing domestic violence. This was our biggest packing day ever!!
Our beautiful handsewn bags were filled with a variety of new and handmade gifts. They included toiletries, cosmetics, full size toothpaste, toothbrushes, a muesli bar, and a variety of stationary, woollens and other mixed gifts.
They say it takes a village, and it really has. There are SO many thanks needed (we really hope we don’t miss anyone!) and so many photos – we have to do additional posts due to a limit so keep an eye our for our other posts.
Where to even begin… There is an incredible and very tiny team who have helped me make, collect, source, sort and pack gifts for the past few months. An extra special thanks to Glynis who has been unwavering in her support. Thank you to Eva, Maddy and Teegs. Thank you also to Toula, Cate, Rachael, Nicole, Nicola, Laura (who travels in from the country with bags and bags fro us!), Mairi and friends,Kerrie, Renee, Claire, Denise and Sherryn for ongoing help.
Incredible thanks to Storage King Australia whose support has made this whole project possible. Mariah is one of the most helpful, friendly and kind people we know. Thanks to Rachael and Tim too! Jack from @ParcelKing helped get our 200 boxes out seamlessly – highly recommend for freighting!
Thank you to the awesome team from @BHP who packed our morning shift yesterday – your hard work was incredible! And to our awesome bunch of afternoon volunteers including the team from Bunnings Warehouse Australia (who also donated packing tubs). Thanks to volunteers from Metro Property Management, Smarthouse Fire Electrical Gas Plumbing and Connectnow too.
We have so many incredible and generous volunteers who help us hand make our bags and many items that go into the packs. An extra special thank you to Cass and the Sewing for Charity Australia crew for help with bags and beautiful handmade gifts, to Ros and kogo to Maria, Angela and your knitting group fur warm things.
Our donations were many and varied and incredibly generous! Thank you to the awesome crew from Bodero for their ongoing support and @NFCO team for the thousands and thousands of Jack N’ Jill natural toothpaste and toothbrushes, to Carman’s Kitchen for boxes and boxes of muesli bars, @Natio for the lip balms, Matt from Officeworks in Chadstone for his ongoing support of us. The thanks keep coming for The @LateralGroup for their donation of Grants toothpaste and to several other dentists who also kindly gave. Thanks to the Chris from Thornton and Wild for our thousands of teabags! To the wonderful woman who gave us more than 1000 toiletries and cosmetics. Thanks to Vince and also St Pius X for the loan of tables.
Thank you to members of many communities who gave individually – gifts and funding – too. Thanks for random parcels that appeared very frequently. Thanks for amazing donations of fabric for our beautiful bags too!
Extra special thanks to board members Leah and Renee who collected toiletries and gifts in Melbourne and Geelong. And to Metro Property Management, Think Property & Co and all your suppliers who collected more than 3000 gifts! Kayla, you went above and beyond! Thanks @AdamsPrint for our cards. If by any awful chance I have missed anyone, please let me know and also please know that every single contribution, no matter what size, is so gratefully received.
He hates the limelight, but thanks to my amazing partner Dave who adds logistics magic to every single event and project. His planning, attention to determine and grunt work (especially the grunt work) and event set up is second to none.
This is just another amazing example of what happens when we all work together to make a difference.
I wish more than anything that our work to support women (and kids) fleeing domestic violence was not needed. We hope that our efforts bring a little to smile about for the women we are supporting.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Melina (the Founder and CEO who comes up with these crazy ideas) ❤️ xo