This year are putting together some Christmas hampers to support locals doing it tough over the holidays. If you have nice Christmassy food items or small things like soaps or household basics that you would yourself enjoy as part of a practical and thoughtful hamper, we’re accepting donations - please drop them in the office this week or next.

And … this week we are continuing on our whole of site organisational quest - new storage for the community shed, new cupboards and tubs … and with more room we are undertaking lots of rearranging right across our spaces. By the end of the week we hope to have a sensible home for everything … and then we’ll wrestle our office into shape (again) … and get cracking on our program for next year.

Also coming up in our last few weeks of the year …

1. Alphington Arts - 7pm, Thursday 12 December. Come along for some end of year creativity

2. Christmas Lunch - 12pm, Friday 13 December. Gold coin donation. We’ll have ham and chicken, salads etc. and Santa!

3. Christmas Carols - 7pm, Sunday 22 December at the Alphington Bowls Club. Always lovely and great for families Bring along cash donation for charity.

4. Project Stationery - we’re excited to be supporting this sustainability initiative over summer. Volunteers will be using ACC facilities to sort and rehome excess stationery collected from schools across Melbourne from 14 December to 26 January.

Also … we’ve finally got our tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicum into the front gardens … with mulch etc. It’s looking great out there!

Don’t forget to RSVP for Christmas lunch - call or email - if you can! Have a great week.

Leanne

Hi all, a reminder that if you come to ACC we’d really appreciate if you could fill out our participant survey this week. Just click here.

Alternatively, you can scan the QR code below. Or you can complete a hard copy in the office … but ONLINE IS BEST.

The survey is about what you do at ACC, why you come along and how attending ACC makes you feel - particularly in relation to community connections.

Thanks so much for taking the time!

Coming up soon! Put the dates in your diary … This year this event is supported by the Community Bank in Queens Parade.

We are excited to once again be part of the Alphington Open Studios Weekends - coming up in late November. Numerous local artists are opening up their home studios, and there will also be artists here at ACC and at the Parklands (in the office/management area at the end of Separation Street). Put a place holder in your diaries to take a trip around the neighbourhood!

This year the event is supported by our wonderful friends at the Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank on Queens Parade. Bendigo Banks really do have a fabulous community model for banking that gives back up to 80% of their profits to the community.

If you have kids at schools, you play sport with a local club … or come along to places just like ACC, you will have benefited from them for sure!

Alphington Open Studios is a fabulous way to support local artists and also learn more about art processes - from painting to pottery to 3D sculpture. You can find out more about the artist involved at www.alphingtonstudios.com.

With Darebin Parklands around the corner, a raft of heritage buildings dotted through our streets, plane trees in their glory and the ultra urban grunge of a train line on our doorstep, the upcoming street photography workshop in October should be fabulous.

Starting at ACC, join photographer Suzanne Phoenix for a lovely, family friendly walk around our neighbourhood with your camera or phone on Saturday 19th October 10am-1pm. The cost is $48.

This workshop is suitable for all ages. Children will need to be supervised by their paying adult. Please click this link to learn more about Suzanne and join the walk in Alphington in October!

Please note that we need a minimum number of people to attend in order to run our workshops.