Tree of Joy has been part of Christmas in Sydney’s north-west for more than 32 years, which is long enough that some of the families it has helped may now be shopping for baubles of their own. It started as a joint effort between the Rotary Club of West Pennant Hills & Cherrybrook and the Rotary Club of Pennant Hills. The two clubs have since become one, but the tree has kept coming back.
What keeps it going is a very small idea. A bauble hangs on a tree, and on it is a person’s story and the one thing they have wished for at Christmas. You might be a parent on your lunch break, or someone who just needed a loaf of bread. You read it, choose a person, and go buy the gift. Then you bring it back with the bauble still attached to one of the drop-off points. Rotary takes it from there and delivers it to the family.
The numbers have become hard to ignore. More than 1,000 gifts go out each year, and the club hopes to do that again this year. Rotary estimates the gifts are worth around $50,000 a year. That makes Trees of Joy, by value, often Rotary’s largest charity activity. The club is quick to say this isn’t really Rotary’s doing. It is the community’s, and it relies completely on the generosity of the people who stop at the tree.
This year the club is working with more than 10 local charities to reach children and adults who may otherwise go without at Christmas. The trees will be at Cherrybrook Village Shopping Centre, Westleigh Village Shopping Centre, Pennant Hills Marketplace and Thornleigh Marketplace from Monday 2nd November until Thursday 10th December. Gifts need to be back by 10 December. Rotary asks people to bring theirs in early, because spreading out the drop-offs makes distribution that much easier.
For those who would like to know more about Rotary, help out, or sit in on a meeting, call 0412 064 336. The Rotary Club of West Pennant Hills and Cherrybrook also has a web page at http://www.wphcrotary.org/.
