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, we’ve got our Christmas Makers Market on Saturday … and it is going to be hot. It is on from 11am-2pm for Christmas shopping, with food and drinks and some Christmas crafty fun!

We’ll have the a/c on inside - you’ll be able to check out the artists exhibiting as part of Alphington Open Studios and cool down … and we’ve got plenty of shade in the garden with our plane trees and pergolas … we’ll also get out our umbrellas and have some icypoles and cool drinks etc. for sale.

More broadly … at this stage it looks like we’ll have a run of days over 30 degrees … which also means homes will heat up and people who rely on public transport for shopping etc. might need to plan ahead.

Darebin Council and Yarra Council have some great info about heat health … with lots of sensible reminders - like shopping for meals that you can eat cold, putting wet washers in the freezer, shading west windows, and more.

And - once you’re all set up at your place you might also like to check in on any neighbours and family who you suspect might find managing the heat difficult. Knowing there is someone to call on is always a good thing!

Also a reminder about the QR code and participant survey running this week. We’d love you to complete it if you can.

See the details in the post below.

Wishing you a great week. Hope to see you here - despite the heat.

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!

So much fun at Community Lunch this week celebrating Diwali - with Meet sharing her Punjabi culture with us. Fabulous food, clothes and dancing! Thanks Meet.

We had a great turnout for the AGM, a mix of staff, committee members, volunteers and community members.

We ate dinner together and then reviewed the year through a presentation that featured Kalimna’s beautiful photos. Every year I am amazed at all the things we get done!

Thanks to our Committee of Governance last year - Heather Campbell (Chair), Jane Wilkinson (Deputy Chair), Lorena Felicitti (Treasurer), Wendy Pryor (Secretary), Ina Leung, Michelle Fidler and Anne Crehan for your guidance and support.

We are very sad to say goodbye to both Michelle and Anne this year. Anne has been on the Committee since at least 2007 and Michelle says she has emails going back to at least 2012. They have made an amazing community contribution over that time, and for staff they have been always supportive, enthusiastic, forward thinking and kind.

We will miss them but know we will keep in contact through all the other amazing community things they are involved with - CWA, Alphington Bowls Club, AFCA etc.

I’d also like to thank Wendy for her contribution over the last few years. She is also retiring from the Committee - but I wave to her multiple times a week as she walks by and she is part of The Ukes (our ukulele group) - so I know we will keep connected!

Thanks again everyone for a fabulous year. We look forward to building on the foundations put in place this year - through our renovations- in the coming years.

Leanne