A heart-felt thank you to our community for again generously showing how much you care for people in our region who may be struggling to make ends meet this Christmas.
Bethany Community Support is thrilled to announce that thanks to donations, fundraisers and sponsorships from the Greater Geelong community to the Geelong Giving Tree Appeal, we raised $118,000.
Together with BCYF (Barwon Child, Youth and Family), The Sexual Assault & Family Violence (SAFV) Centre and other community agencies, we supported more than 3,200 people this Christmas, by providing them with gift cards to help them manage the financial stress that Christmas can bring.
Lily, a case worker at Bethany who provided gift cards to some of the people she is working with said:
“I had underestimated the impact it would have. It’s so heart-warming to know how much of a difference it makes.
One mum said “I can give my boys a Christmas now”, another saying
“Wow, that is truly amazing. Thank you so much. I will use it for food.””
The Geelong Giving Tree Appeal has been running for well over 20 years and calls on the generosity of the Geelong community to donate to those less fortunate. The recipients of these gift cards include people experiencing family violence and sexual assault, financial and mental health issues, homelessness, gambling harm and other family relationship hardships. The gift cards empower families and individuals living in Geelong, allowing them to purchase Christmas gifts and food that they couldn’t otherwise afford.
We want to say thank you to 550+ donors who gave this Christmas, including some of our incredible fundraisers. This includes the teams at Aussiewide Financial Services, TAC Social Club, ACDP (CSIRO) Social Club, Stage II and Lyon’s Constructions.
We also thank our Major Partners, who matched all donations this year – this includes Anthony Costa Foundation, Benefit Geelong, APCO Foundation, Bisanella, GMHBA, Geelong Connected Communities and Cleanaway – we absolutely couldn’t have supported as many families as we did this Christmas without your support.
Finally, to our partners City of Greater Geelong and Times News Group who helped us promote the Geelong Giving Tree far and wide – thank you.
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