Water bottle funds flow to WRISC

Donation: CHW chair Angeleen Jenkins, WRISC business Manager Anita Koelle, WRISC Aboriginal program team leader Jodie Schulz, and CHW’s outgoing managing director Paul O’Donohue. Photo: ANDREW WILSON

WRISC Family Violence Support has received a donation of more than ten thousand dollars from Central Highlands Water.

All funds raised by the sales of CHW’s Choose Tap reusable steel water bottles at the most recent Ballarat Begonia Festival have been presented to WRISC, amounting to $10,360.

Many of these bottles included a reconciliation design, Managing Country Together, by Wadawurrung artist Billy-Jay O’Toole, which represents CHW’s connection to the Dja Dja Wurrung, Wurundjeri, Barenji Gadjin, and Wadawurrung peoples and land within the water board’s catchment area.

CHW chair Angeleen Jenkins said the Choose Tap funds will boost WRISC’s programs that support Indigenous community members.

“This year’s donation is CHW’s largest… We thank everyone in the community who visited us at the Begonia Festival and purchased a bottle in support of this very important work,” she said.

WRISC business manager Anita Koelle said the organisation values their collaborative relationship with CHW.

“Families are the focus of our work, and we provide holistic services in a culturally safe way to best meet the needs of the families that we support,” she said.

The Choose Tap bottles are still for sale for $10 at CHW’s Learmonth Road office and come in many designs.