The Club was busy in the lead up to Christmas.
At the end of November our Club collected about five shopping trolleys full of nonperishable food items and household products from community members and shoppers at Cherrybrook Village and Coonara shopping centres. These were then delivered, together with items donated by Club members, to the Rotary Club of Pennant Hills where they were then trucked off to central western NSW communities impacted by the floods.
On Saturday 3 December the Club held its inaugural Christmas Market. We worked together with the Rural Fire Service, the Girl Guides and Scouts, Goods Rescued and Rehoused and the Homicide Victims Support Group. Thirty six stallholders sold their wares and raised significant funds for the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, a national charity assisting people in our most marginalised communities to gain vital language, literacy and communication skills. The takings from our donation jars will go to the Rotary Flood Relief Appeal for Western NSW. It was a fun day providing lots of food, drinks, craft and good Christmas shopping. More than 1500 members of the local community attended. Martellis at Cherrybrook provided a bountiful fruit basket for our raffle prize which was won by local Lorraine Walker. The Scouts and Guides were also great helpers on the day and beforehand doing at least 600 letterbox drops.
On 9 December our Club participated in another community service in great demand at this time of year. Members transported a large load of toys, from Goods Rescued and Rehomed and delivered these to “Terry the Toy Man” at Ingleside. Terry has some 30 volunteers who sort, wash and repair these toys, and then donate them to charities.
Rotary’s Trees of Joy erected at Cherrybrook Village Shopping Centre and Westleigh Village Shopping Centre brought a lot of joy this Christmas to those less fortunate, mostly children. Shoppers bought baubles off the tree resulting in approximately 1000 presents being sorted and distributed to 15 charities. This year we received items for at least 20 hamper/pamper packs from Oak Hill Public School. About six trolley loads of gifts were donated anonymously by a local lady from Westleigh. It is through the generosity of the public that makes this project a success. The Tree of Joy is one of our biggest community events and this year was the 31st Tree of Joy for our Club.
If you would like to know more about Rotary, be involved or join us for dinner please call 0412 064 336. Rotary Club of West Pennant Hills and Cherrybrook Webpage: http://www.wphcrotary.org/
