Hi all, another week has flown by.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along on Friday to Christmas lunch. We had a lovely day with over 50 people attending - fabulous food …. and perfect weather for eating in the garden. Thanks so much to Santa for visiting and making the day extra special! And to everyone who came along to help. Such a lovely community we live in!

This week I am in and out of the centre - getting ready for next year. I’ll be working on overdue paperwork, next year’s programming and getting our semester 1 brochure out …. as well as doing a final tidy up.

If you need us after the end of this week and over the summer school holidays, you can get in contact with us via email … info@alphington.org.au. I will happily get back to you if necessary. However, anything that doesn’t need an immediate response will be answered when our office reopens after the long weekend at the end of January.

Next week I’ll put out a final newsletter for the year with the new program - so you can check it out and book in over the summer break if you are keen. We have some new funding and programming ideas that we are very excited about!

I hope you survive the heat today. It’s going to be hot. Try to keep your house cool, keep hydrated and avoid going out in the heat of the day if you can. Remember that Yarra and Darebin Council both have heatwave information on their websites if you need advice/information.

I hope you have a great week in the lead up to Christmas.

Leanne

As you probably know, we are a collection point for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and you can leave donations of household staples in the clearly labelled cupboard in our back garden any time.

The donated goods are collected fortnightly on a Thursday morning. This collection will continue over summer this year.

Thank you to everyone that donates - including schools and churches and individuals.

ASRC provides amazing services to some of the most vulnerable people in our society who cannot access either jobs or government financial assistance due to visa conditions etc.

Their ‘supermarket’ service and meal support makes a huge difference to peoples lives and dignity.

Are you interested in joining a book club in 2025? At ACC we run book clubs at different times and on different days … and some have vacancies for next year.

Specifically we have clubs that meet on the:

• 1st Thursday of each month - both the morning and the evening;

• 2nd Monday of each month in the evening

• 3rd Monday and 3rd Tuesday of each month in the evening

Bookings are now open for new members to join. Just click here to enrol.

It costs $60 to join. Book sets are supplied by the Darebin Libraries.

There are some great reads scheduled for 2025. So join a club and meet other avid readers to discuss a new book each month.

Our book clubs read 10 books a year. The first meeting will be in February (when you will collect your first book), the last in December.

If you join up now (over the school holidays) Kalimna will be in contact with you in late January/early February when we are back in the office.

Christmas.

It is very hard to believe that this is our last week of programming for 2024 - but there you go! I hope you are more organised than I am with present buying and general planning …. aagh! Usually I have my shopping complete by the first week of December - this year I have barely scratched the surface. Never mind … it’ll all come together I am sure (it has to right?).

On Thursday we have our last session of Alphington Arts at 7pm. We’ll be doing some paper weaving led by Corrin. If you are interested in joining in this creative group experience look out for it next year and join up!

And … of course everyone is welcome to join us on Friday for an end of year celebration and early Christmas Lunch at 12pm. We’ll have a yummy celebratory buffet, with something for everyone, like chicken and ham and salads … some Christmas cake, brownies and lemon slice. And Santa will be there! We’ll sing a few carols. We’ll have our traditional lucky door prize! RSVP if you can. Gold coin donation appreciated.

We also have Christmas Carols at 7pm, coming up on Sunday 22 December at the Alphington Bowls Club. Another chance to meet Santa … and sing loudly to your hearts content. Always a great local night.

We hope to see you this week.

Leanne

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