Good Friday Update

GOOD FRIDAY REPORT

I was in Woollies today doing my shopping and at the checkout was a Good Friday collection tin. It reminded me that the Club isn’t the only organisation that prepares and fundraises during the year for the Good Friday Appeal and that other places too would be in full swing in their own preparation for our special day. I ventured onto the Appeal website recently and already there are numerous activities happening around our state – from the Run for Kids in Melbourne to concerts in Moe to a dusk-till dawn square dance in Deer Park. That’s not to mention the events on the day itself like an Easter Egg hunt in Leopold or line dancing in Ringwood.

Our Club too has its own tried and tested (and successful) activities from our famous (or infamous!) Barrow Push down on the Mornington Peninsula through to our volunteers running amuck in Bendigo (we look forward to the Prime cross over Carol!!), to our Easter Egg raffles. We will again be having a team operate the UBC Information Booth at Etihad Stadium in an attempt to raise our profile and gain more members. Our metropolitan volunteers will be harassing our motorists (in the nicest possible way) at city intersections and again we welcome with open arms the assistance from our friends from the MFB and CFA’s to help us with arms and legs.

We also welcome back our volunteers from Freemasonry Victoria who will be collecting at numerous 7-11 convenience stores through metropolitan Melbourne and at this early stage have indications that there may be an increase of how many of those stores will have collectors. This may mean an increase to our total! Cross fingers!!

Our sub-committee has also needed to design a new "Thank You" card for the Club. Keep an eye out for it and please if you have any comments, don’t be shy and pass them on. Without comment, we don’t know how to improve! But please make them constructive!

I am sure that you will all agree that the Royal Childrens Hospital holds a very special piece of our hearts and the work that the men and women do for the tiny patients is remarkable. One just has to look back a few months to the amazing surgery to separate conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna and if you were anything like me, shed a tear or two when news came through that the team were successful and now the girls have left the hospital for a very bright future. It’s stories like those that remind us of why we keep coming back every year. It’s people like that specialised team that remind us that we need to keep fundraising and collecting so that they can use specialised equipment and have the budget on hand to use in researching illnesses that cripple our children. I was extremely proud in the knowledge that I volunteer for an organisation that is part of all of that and it will be that story that will remain with me through this Good Friday when things get a little busy and we need that simple reminder of why we do it.

Please remember that we do it not for ourselves, but for our kids and those that are less fortunate than ourselves.

So, I now put the call out to you. Please…if you are not already involved somehow with the Appeal, I urge you to contact your Branch or Group President or contact Head Office to put your hand up. We need all the help that we can get. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all day, even if you only have an hour to spare…I’m sure that you will be welcomed and appreciated for what you have to offer.

On behalf of the UBC GFA sub-committee, GOOD LUCK!!! We hope that the sun shines on your events and that 2010 is memorable for all of the right reasons.

Kayley Wedd

GFA Sub-Committee