Hi everyone,

The last few weeks have been great fun as we’ve been winding down for the year. AAA Bowls finished with a barbecue on Wednesday, and all of our AAA Arts participants took home folios of their fantastic creations on Friday. And we had a great day on our Thriftseekers Op ShopAdventure on Thursday checking out all the op shops on High Street in Preston.

We’re also very proud to have been part of another successful Alphington Open Studios. We had some really amazing artists this year and it was great to see so many people come through the doors despite the weather (which was a bit bleak at times).

Now it’s just about time for Christmas, and we’re looking forward to our big Christmas Lunch this Friday. It will be on from 12-2pm. This year we’re going to have some great musical performances and a visit from a very jolly VIP. We would love for anyone that’s been part of our Alphington community this year to come along! Please email or call to RSVP if you aren’t a Community Lunch regular so we can plan our food!

Alphington Christmas Carols will be on Sunday the 21st of December at 7pm over at Alphington Bowls Club. We’ll be singing all the classics and hope it will be a night of both Christmas and community spirit! Bring a gold coin donation - it will go to a worthy cause.

Project Stationery will be setting up shop here from next Sunday and will be sorting and redistributing stationery over the whole summer period. This is a great use of our space while we are closed over the school holidays.

Wishing everyone a very happy holidays, look out for our new brochure. Coming soon!

Cheers Leanne

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has come by in the last few weeks to support our Keep Our Doors Open campaign asking for fairer funding from the State Government.

On Wednesday we delivered around 1000 signed postcards to Kat Theophanous’s office, all signed by locals who value the four neighbourhood houses in the Northcote electorate. Strong communities start here!

Check out some of the photos below! If you get the chance to talk to your local politicians over the next little while please don’t forget to add your support for this campaign into the conversation. The more people who talk about it the better chance we will have (we hope).

On Thursday the 4th of December we will be running another Thrift Seekers Op Shop Adventure!

Led by a true expert with a LOT of experience (that’s a pat on the back for Leanne!) we will be travelling to the far away land of Preston to explore the wild expanses of Salvos, Uniting and Sacred Heart Mission op shops. With a stop for lunch at one of the lovely restaurants in that neck of the woods.

Thanks so much to the Community Bank on Queens Parade for supporting this program.

If you’d like to join us you can book in online here. Only $5. And don’t forget to BYO miki card on the day as we’re taking this adventure by PT (public transport).

Sustainable transport … sustainable shopping … a sustainable Christmas … how excellent!

Another successful Christmas Makers’ Market pulled off! Thanks everyone for coming out on Saturday to make it such a lovely day. The weather was perfect, we had fabulous stallholders and lots of people came along which was just super.

In particular we would like to thank all our amazing volunteers for the hard work they put in both on the day of and in the lead up to the event.

We are so lucky to have such a generous community here at ACC.

Hi everyone,

Lots happening this week in the lead up to our Christmas Makers’ Market this Saturday the 22nd of November! The weather is looking good - touch wood - and it’s shaping up to be a lovely day to celebrate another great year here at ACC. We have 25 stalls this year, so lots of opportunities to find perfect gifts.

And while you are shopping we’ll be running Christmas craft activities to keep the kids entertained, and naturally a barbecue to keep everyone happy. We’re also looking for volunteers to help out on the day - see more details later in this newsletter.

Alphington Open Studios will also be starting this weekend, and the inside of the centre will we transformed into a gallery space on both Saturday and Sunday to feature some awesome local artists. How exciting!

And before all this we have another great program lined up this week:

• Garden to Plate this morning from 11.30am-1pm - book online

• 3rd Monday of the Month Book Club tonight 7-8.30pm

• Tomorrow from 1-3pm we are running a special Preserves Group in preparation for the market on Saturday. We will be making jams, pickles and relishes, and we encourage everyone to come along if you can! And donate small clean jars if you have them hanging around …

• Toy Library will also be open tomorrow from 1-3pm

• And 3rd Tuesday of the Month Book Club will be meetomg tomorrow evening 7.30-9pm

• AAA Bowls at Alphington Bowls Club, Line Dancing at the Scout Hall and Alphington Playgroup here at the Centre Wednesday morning from 10am-12pm

• Armchair Theatre Wednesday from 1-3pm

• Crunch on Thursday from 12.30-2pm

• Alphington Arts will be running Thursday evening from 7.30-9.30pm and we will doing linocuts to make Christmas cards! This is a super fun activity and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. We hope to see you there! Book in online.

• Community Garden and Craft Friday morning from 10am-12pm

• Community Lunch Friday 12-1pm

• AAA Art Friday 1-2pm

Looking forward to a very Christmassy week!

Cheers Leanne