Women with a VIEW can wrap for you

Social service: Ballarat Evening VIEW Club members, pictured with Member for Ballarat Catherine King (centre), were successful in their application for a $2500 Federal Volunteer Grant to purchase new tech equipment. Photo: EDWINA WILLIAMS

NEED some assistance with your gift wrapping as Christmas draws nearer?

Ballarat Evening VIEW Club members can help you until Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24 December, at Stockland Wendouree.

With a stall set up outside Kmart, the social women’s group are wrapping presents for a gold coin donation to raise funds for The Smith Family’s Learning For Life program for another year.

“Stockland are very good to us,” said member of 20 years Bronwen Butler. “They buy the paper, our members donate the ribbons, and I buy the sticky tape and run the roster.

“Stockland put us on their website and advertise when we will be up there, so they’re very, very good.”

Ballarat Evening VIEW Club’s Bronwen Butler wrapping Christmas presents at Stockland Wendouree. The club’s stall is outside Kmart this year. Photo: FILE

VIEW (Voice, Interests and Education of Women) clubs exist across Australia to bring women together for fun and friendship, and have a total of about 13,000 members. Fifty of those women are in the Ballarat Evening VIEW group.

Alongside meeting for activities and networking, the clubs exist to fundraise for the The Smith Family’s Learning For Life program. The local club currently sponsors about 16 students.

Ballarat Evening VIEW Club recently received $2500 from the Federal Government’s Volunteer Grant Program to purchase new equipment including a shared laptop for club admin, and a smart phone for an EFTPOS Square Reader machine.

“This will help our secretary and treasurer keep all our files together,” said Ms Butler.

“We use the Square Reader for the wrapping, or when people want to pay for their dinner at meetings.”