Upcoming events

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Latest news

Collingwood Harvest Festival

On Saturday 31 March the Vic Team took part in the annual Collingwood Harvest Festival - like last year, the event was a huge success, all of the children were thrilled to take part in the activities we had on offer and it was even better this year as we were able to promote our Collingwood Playgroup to parents and caretakers that were present.

As with all the events we've had this month the volunteers who helped on the day were superstars!

Children's Book Festival

On Sunday 25 March the Vic Team went along to the Children's Book Festival. The event was held at the Victorian State Library and was a huge success! We ran a sausage sizzle (people still LOVE sausage sizzles!) and took the opportunity to engage with as many people as possible - the photos don't do it justice, we had a line about 20metres long until we sold out!

A huge thank you to the volunteers involved, they worked so hard on the day - thank you also to the Wheeler Centre for thinking to invite us, we can't wait until next year!

Harmony Day

Fitzroy (and surrounding!) families enjoyed an afternoon of African drumming, face painting, a jumping castle and barbecue at our Harmony Day celebrations on Wednesday, March 21.
Save the Children teamed up with another local service to the area - Cubbies.

The event was a wonderful day for all involved and really brought together families from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. As well as celebrating we also used the opportunity to inform families about our services in the area which include the Fitzroy Toy Library and our new inner city playgroups.

Community Fundraising

Gareth Jones is one of our Victorian Fundraisers. The 37-year-old Southbank resident is crossing the Tasman next month to take part in Ironman New Zealand - a gruelling 12-hour race in which competitors swim, ride and run a total of 225km.

The birth of his first child and a trip to poverty-stricken Nepal motivated Gareth to set up a fundraising page for Save the Children, taking donations from the public keen to see him succeed in his first full Ironman race. He aims to raise at least $5000 for our work.

"During my trip to Nepal I saw a lot of poverty and lack of education,'' Gareth said.

"They live a very tough life but the kids over there are amazing. They were just so happy considering they had nothing. The thought of my two-year-old girl living in a slum or on the streets with parents unable to feed her really breaks my heart.''

Read the full interview with cycle nation.

Learn more about his training or show your support.

Here in Victoria we've been lucky enough to have a generous bunch of people within the community raise a huge amount of money for our programs - the events throughout 2011 have included dinners, concerts, sausage sizzles and karaoke nights, just to name a few!

Fun times in the sunshine

A guest post by Rachel Kurzyp 

Today I made the most of summer. I played connect four, twister, hula hoops, splashed around in the water and built safari animals out of play dough. After all the sun and giggles I'm a little worn out.

I joined around twenty children and their families at one of Save the Children's school holiday events in Collingwood. Despite the heat, children were making most of the activities. Mothers rested babies on their hips as they twisted the skipping rope for older children, young girls used feathers, crayons and pipe cleaners to make paper versions of themselves and those that got too hot played in the water, dunking toy ducks.

Mothers said they were grateful for the event as it encouraged children to get out of the house and make friends with other children in the community. One boy said it was nice to have someone to play connect four with. He beat me in a ‘best out of three' game. The space also gave parents the opportunity to ask questions about local schools and other education programs in their community.

Sharing these moments with the children and their families is always a highlight for me. With many more events to follow, I may have a chance to perfect my playdough building skills.

In addition to events such as this, Save the Children runs weekly playgroups across Victoria. We also run a Toy Library where families can borrow age and culturally appropriate toys and educational resources in Fitzroy.

Save the Children Victoria Summer Newsletter

With a very busy year coming to a close and plans for 2012 underway, we thought we would share a few highlights for 2011.

Download the newsletter.

Toy Library

The Fitzroy Toy Library is a not-for-profit initiative that has been serving the local community for more than a decade.

The Library provides age and culturally - appropriate toys and educational resources (at little or no cost) to families fom the local area.

Find out more about our Toy Library.

Volunteering in Victoria

We're always looking for more wonderful volunteers to help us out. If you're interested in working at our K4K shop, sorting donations in our warehouse or assisting us with one off events throughout the year - please get in touch.
Find out more on how you can become a volunteer.

Programs

Save the children runs many programs throughout Australia. Some specific programs running in Victoria are; Operation Newstart,
Early Learning Centres and Mobile Play Schemes.

Our stores

• Kids for Kids
  K4K is a unique shopping experience, the shop is stocked with top quality pre-loved clothing, toys and books for babies and kids up to about 12 years old.
  
  The shop has officially been open for 1 year - see photos from our recent birthday party.

   

• Ararat
  The Ararat Op Shop was opened by Brian and Dot Collins back in1988. The shop relies on donations from the community and majority of sales come from people traveling through the town.

Donations for both of our stores are always accepted in store and via our Collingwood based office.

State manager

Rupert North

Rupert joined Save the Children in 2005, and worked in the Marketing and Australia Program teams before joining the Victorian team in 2010. In mid-2011, Rupert has over ten years experience in the not-for-profit sector, and has Masters degree in Community Development. He has been lucky enough to spend time with staff at programs all over the state as well as across Australia, and is committed to supporting Save the Children to deliver programs that create lasting change for the children, young people and families we work with.

Rupert hails from the UK, and has lived in Melbourne with his wife and two young children for over a decade.

Contacts