Bendigo Bank Contribution

Bendigo Bank Contribution

One of the great contributors to the work that we do at the Foothills Foundation is our major sponsor, Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

They have been a sponsor of the Foundation and an active participant in our fundraising events for over 15 years.

We are just one of the charities and other good causes that Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark supports and we are extremely grateful for that support.

It really does make a difference to our grant recipients – people living with disadvantage in our community in Melbourne’s outer east.

Last year, we were delighted to be invited to take part in the Bank’s 20th anniversary which was a great celebration of their connection and contribution to community.

Thank you for your continued support, Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

UR Retreat

UR Retreat

The Foothills Foundation is a proud supporter of the UR Retreat which is a 4 day camp for teenage girls aged 13-15.  Many of the girls have been put forward by their schools who feel they would benefit from the camp which focuses on self esteem, leadership skills, positive body image, and many other life skills and topics that are so important in this day and age.
 
This amazing camp has been put together and run by the local charity Bridge Builders.  Each year they host between 50-70 young women.  The UR Retreat is planned and executed by an experienced team of volunteer leaders, who use their skills and knowledge to create a caring and nurturing environment where the young people feel safe, loved, and free of judgement so they can begin their journey of development and discovering their value. Along with our leadership team, the UR Retreat also provides a range of inspirational speakers and educational workshop facilitators to give the girls a wide range of skills, to learn how to live their life to their full potential, and bounce back from setbacks.
 
President Tamara Lloyd was privileged to attend, and hand out achievement medals to the girls, at the Sponsors Dinner at the Toolangi camp on 27th September.  She commented “it was so wonderful to meet many of the girls on the night and chat to them about the positive experiences they’d been having on the camp and all the beautiful friendships they’d made.  It was particularly great to hear how much more confident they felt in themselves, and how they felt they were more ready to take on the challenges of life after being on the camp”.
 
We want to congratulate the UR Retreat leadership team, headed up by Bonnie Knight, who have done an amazing job again this year.   This year we contributed $5000 toward the camp and we look forward to again sponsoring the camp in 2024!

President’s Report 2023

President’s Report 2023

To the Board, Trustees, members, and followers of the Foothills Foundation, it has been my pleasure
to be the present of the foundation this past year and here is my report.

The Board
A continuing goal of the foundation is to continue to grow the board and to develop board members
into new roles to gain experience in such roles, as well as to continue to diversify the board. Our goal
is to grow the board to 12 members this year. 

 

This year has been no exception, with myself and Tamarra taking on roles of President and Vice
President. Peter has kindly always been available to help guide and offer his previously gained
knowledge as President. Lauren, Colleen, Tegan and Martin have also added so much experience and
value to their roles on the board throughout the year, I thank you all.

We have also gained an amazing new board member, in bringing on board Charles, he has bought
new skills, enthusiasm and access to his network for events, it has been a pleasure watching him join
in and develop this foundation.

We have carried out some amazing and discussion provoking strategic planning meetings this year,
which have shown the diversity in our board. It has been exciting to gain a good understanding of
where this current board sees this foundation going and the goals we would like to achieve, both in
the foundation team and out in the community.

The Events
Our Annual Golf Day went well, lower numbers than previously seen but still a successful event. The
Team put in a lot of collaborated hard work and made the day fun for all, even if the weather didn’t
play ball.

The Mother’s Day High Tea went very well indeed with a good amount of money being raised. We
were fortunate enough to have some high-end auction items donated and bid on which really gave
the profit margin from this event a great boost.

We did find this year a little more challenging to get people to purchase tickets and we discussed that
this appeared to be a ripple effect from Covid and the fact that the continual increases in interest
rates have made people a little anxious and less likely to spend on events like these.
The Team pulled together an amazing event all the same and as usual the Foundation and the
individuals we give grants out to, have benefitted from the dedication and hard work put into this
event.

We sadly had to cancel the AFL Lunch this year as we did not get enough interest or ticket sales.

Sponsorship
We are delighted that Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark has continued their commitment to
the Foundation by renewing sponsorship. Their generosity and support in challenging times is
fantastic, especially when our normal fund-raising activities have not all proceeded this year. Tamarra
and Peter with the bank and have secured sponsorship moving into this next year also, great work
team and once again Thank You to Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

One of our goals is to develop our ongoing business sponsorship income, this has gone around in
circles a little with some differing opinions on price point, what is considered “Value” for a business
to want to support the foundation and how to promote this out. The board will be reviewing and
finalizing this soon, so we can get this live and accessible on the new website.

Grants
We have continued to step up this year to support community needs in these ongoing tough times.
We have had grant applications from a variety of people with some very interesting and heartfelt
requests. I have been proud to be involved in masking some of these decisions and in us as a board
discussing how much more we would like to do.

We have discussed coming up with some community based project grants, which would be a larger
sum of money and allow us to assist with bigger projects in our community that will provide to a
larger amount of people. I am looking forward to watching how this idea develops and what projects
we will be able to support.

The Grants committee have done a great job in responding quickly and appropriately to grant
applications, ensuring we can assist those people when they need it.
Thank you, Tegan, Lauren and Mandy.

Donations
The Foothills was very grateful in receiving a donation this year of $90’000 from The Committee of
Management from Abbeyfield, facilitated by Peter Feeney. These funds will massively assist the
foundation to keep providing grants, both to individuals and community projects. We as a committee
thank Peter and his team for this donation.

Closing Thoughts
This year has been a fantastic experience to be President of this Foundation, I have learnt a lot more
about how things are run, what we can achieve as a team and how much good work we do out in the
community, that is very much required.

As many of you know this has been a tough year for me personally with medical issues arising
suddenly that took my time away from the Foundation and then I had a pre-booked trip to the UK to
see my family after a long 5 years away from them all, this again took me away from being involved
in the foundation’s running’s for a further 6 weeks.

I would like to thank you all for your support during the first half of the year, especially when things
were tough, you all rallied round and helped take over the running of the Foundation in my absence,
you also called and messaged me to check in on myself and my family and that meant a great deal.
With the above still going on and other priorities I need to address this year coming I will be stepping
down as President today and look forward to supporting whoever takes over the reins.

I believe this year was again another tough one out in the world with the financial changes
happening, but I believe we have done some marvelous work providing the grants that we have,
running the events that we could and carrying out the planning sessions required to ensure the
foundation continues to develop and grow for years to come. I have seen it as a privilege to be
involved in the above-mentioned things.

Many Thanks
Natalie Hallett
President of The Foothills Foundation

High tea a hit again!

High tea a hit again!

The Foothills Foundation’s Annual High Tea celebrating women and family in our community was again held at Karralyka on Sunday 15 May 2022.

This year, the event was held in support of the Bridge Builders Youth Charity’s UR Retreat, an annual event that has been running for 15 years to help young women to build self-esteem and life skills.

The keynote speaker was the remarkable Bec Mitchell, who was once a client of Bridge Builders and went on to become their Executive Officer and the driving force behind the UR Retreat.

Bec also represented Australia in endurance athletics running 7 marathons on 7 days on 7 continents and was a recent contestant on the SAS TV program.

Bec told an amazing personal story about living with struggle but flourishing with the benefit of people believing in her and her own determination to be the best that she can be. It was really inspiring.

Karralyka (as always) put on a fantastic event with quality food and great service. Our own Natalie Hallett stepped in to MC the event at short notice and did a fabulous job and Jeremy Tyrrell from Ray White Croydon was back once again in an entertaining performance as Auctioneer that really delivered results.

Thanks to those outstanding results (more than $14,000 was raised), we have been able to fund 50% of the available places on the UR-Retreat this year providing 35 young women with the opportunity to participate. That is having an impact on community.

We have also contributed to Anchor’s Kinship Care Appeal

Thank you to Pinchapoo who again provided giftbags for all guests and Eastland who provided major auction items and helped us in a number of other ways.

Thank you also to everyone who attended and for everyone who chipped in with auction items or raffle prizes and to those of you who put your hand up in the auctions.

AFL Finals Lunch another great success

AFL Finals Lunch another great success

The annual AFL Finals Charity Lunch was well attended on Thursday 19 September 2019 at the Karralyka Centre who again did a great job looking after the 120 people in attendance.

This year’s event was again excellently facilitated by Bruce Eva with a panel of three outstanding guests in Melbourne’s champion ruckman Max Gawn and Lauren Pierce (who also recently won the 2019 VFLW Best and Fairest) and the wonderful former St Kilda and Brisbane player and media personality, Gilbert McAdam. They each had great stories to tell and a bit more was added given the close associations that Gilbert and Bruce had with the St Kilda Football Club and Danny Frawley whose memorial service was on the day before the lunch.

Not unexpectedly, this led to some reflections on the issue of mental health and how each of our guests perceived the challenges in their own worlds. They all also shared some humorous and some inspiring stories of life in elite sport and the communities in which they have lived.

Raffles and auctions were well supported and enabled us to make a significant donation to Biala Ringwood who provide respite support for parents with children with additional needs.

A special thanks and congratulations to Grant and Nick Brookes of Warranbrooke for your auction success winning the signed Max Gawn footy jumper – well done.

Thanks to everyone who supported the event by attending or donating a raffle prize or auction item or making a donation. Special thanks too to Daryl Stevens, Jim Dean, Paul McPherson and the rest of the Board and volunteers for making the event happen and for your continued support for the Foothills Foundation and the work that we do in “Improving the lives of disadvantaged people in our community” of Maroondah, Yarra Ranges and surrounds.

Thanks also for the continued and generous sponsorship of Bendigo Community Bank Morroolbark.

 

 

7 ways to help us help our community

The Foothills Foundation is operated by a team of dedicated volunteers.

We need and welcome any help that people, businesses and other organisations can offer to assist us in raising funds and connecting with people and community services that need a hand.

Here are 7 ways that you can help us in our work of “Improving the lives of disadvantaged people in our community”:

  1. Become a member – for just $50 for an individual, $75 for a family and $100 for an organisation, it is a small annual investment that makes a difference – learn more and join at https://foothills.org.au/product/membership/
  2. Make a donation or bequest – the Foothills Foundation is a registered charity with full tax deductability for donations – explore at https://foothills.org.au/donations/
  3. Attend an event – we run a variety of quality events each year as a primary fund raising avenue – there is sure to be something of interest. See what’s on at https://foothills.org.au/events/
  4. Tell community services in Maroondah and Yarra Ranges about us and how we might help them and their disadvantaged clients with special needs and connect us at grants@foothills.org.au
  5. Sponsor the Foundation or an event. It is good business because people want to work with and do business with organisations that are involved in and support their local community. As the Foundation President, I would love to hear from you so give me a call on 0438 533 311.
  6. Help us to extend our reach and connection with people and organisations across Maroondah and Yarra Ranges by liking our facebook page and sharing our stories
  7. Donate prizes for auction and raffle items to help us raise more funds at events – contact us at events@foothills.org.au.

Of course, if you have the time and commitment to volunteer with us in some way, that would be great too. Give me a call on 0438 533 311 if that is of interest to you.

Peter Maguire

President