	{"id":22824,"date":"2019-07-24T13:18:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T03:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=22824"},"modified":"2019-07-28T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T01:02:10","slug":"very-special-fundraising-fun-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/very-special-fundraising-fun-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Very special fundraising fun in the city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE Very Special Kids Piggy Bank Appeal rolled into the city recently on its journey raise one-million dollars for the children\u2019s\u2019 palliative, hospice and support service.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers, including David Kelly, were joined by Commonwealth Bank employees like Rebecca Stephens in tin rattling, a barbeque and market stalls.<\/p>\n<p>VSK supports over 900 families across the state whose kids are dealing with life-threatening conditions and illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe support families from diagnosis to adulthood or bereavement and we have a range of support services for the whole family,\u201d Mr Kelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s all free of charge and it\u2019s for every member of the family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving a child with a life-threatening condition is a very difficult situation for families and so providing things like respite time for families helps them cope and recharge their batteries, and also deal with all the grief and difficulty they face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From a facility in Malvern, the service provides around the clock care in the states only paediatric hospice, along with outreach and support services.<\/p>\n<p>All that takes money, which is why the 700kg giant piggy bank stopped by the corner of Sturt Streets and Lydiard Street South on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt costs Very Special Kids $9.1 every year to operate and we have to raise two-thirds of that ourselves,\u201d Mr Kelly said. \u201cPeople can donate throughout the year through our website &#8211; <strong>vsk.org.au<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE Very Special Kids Piggy Bank Appeal rolled into the city recently on its journey raise one-million dollars for the children\u2019s\u2019 palliative, hospice and support service. Volunteers, including David Kelly, were joined by Commonwealth Bank employees like Rebecca Stephens in tin rattling, a barbeque and market stalls. VSK supports over 900 families across the state [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/very-special-fundraising-fun-in-the-city\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":22904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-22824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Very special fundraising fun in the city - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/very-special-fundraising-fun-in-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Very special fundraising fun in the city - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Very Special Kids Piggy Bank Appeal rolled into the city recently on its journey raise one-million dollars for the children\u2019s\u2019 palliative, hospice and support service. Volunteers, including David Kelly, were joined by Commonwealth Bank employees like Rebecca Stephens in tin rattling, a barbeque and market stalls. 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