Invitations sent for store celebration

PAST volunteers of the much-loved Ballarat Combined Charities Card Shop are being urged to reach out as organisers plan to celebrate the local institution’s history.

On Wednesday, 30 March, volunteers will meet for an afternoon tea at the Ballarat Golf Club to mark the store’s achievements which closed for good just before Christmas.

The seasonal gift and card shop ran with the help of 150 members during its lifetime, and coordinator Denise Boyko, said that of those people, 35 of them have been unaccounted for.

“That’s not too bad considering the 37 years it’s been running. It’d be nice to contact everyone though because I don’t want anyone to feel left out,” she said.

“Especially when it’s been such a voluntary thing all these years, and a successful endeavour. There’s definitely some members who’ve put in quite a lot of years into it.”

Some invitations have returned undelivered, and Ms Boyko has tried several methods to get in contact with past volunteers including posts on the group’s Facebook page, word-of-mouth, and correspondence with relatives.

Her volunteer list for the store dates as far as 1993, leaving the first few years’ worth of helpers unaccounted alongside “a few gaps” in recent years.

The get-together will be mostly informal, and a history will be presented to showcase the funds raised and the charities supported over the shop’s time.

About 50 volunteers are expected to attend, alongside special guests, and Ms Boyko said it will be a well-deserved farewell for a constant fixture in many of their lives.

“It’ll be great getting everyone back together again, and thinking about all the good times and achievements that have been made,” she said.

“A lot of our alumni are quite elderly so it’ll be good for them to see other people they worked with back in the day.

“It’s been a good, social thing for a lot of them, and it’ll just be nice for all the volunteers to feel what they’ve done is very worthwhile.”

Volunteers wishing to join in the celebration can contact Ms Boyko via email at [email protected].