Portarlington Golf Club unveils latest community fund recipients

THE latest round of Portarlington Golf Club’s Community Contribution Fund (CCF) allocations has been released, providing the community with more than $10,000 to local groups.

Club chief executive officer Michael Phillips said four groups will each receive a portion of $15,000, with an unprecedented number of requests providing a stark reminder of the struggles local organisations are battling presently.

“It was a lot higher than anything I’ve seen since joining up the club.

“It’s a bit concerning but in reality, there’s a role we can play in that and we’re happy to continue to gave back through the CCF.

“We’re also really pleased with the diversity of our applicants, such as Lifeline and the local RSL, which traditionally have relied on government funding.

“On top of that though, it made it really difficult for us to decipher who our four recipients would be for this year.”

The four businesses receiving CCF funding this year include Geelong Youth Engagement ($5,000), Lifeline ($5,000), RSL Portarlington and St Leonards ($2,500) and Food Assist 3223 ($2,500).

In the past five financial years, Portarlington Golf Club has donated more than $150,000 to community groups.

This year, the CCF received 18 grant applications, totalling in excess of $122,000.

The CCF is the club’s biggest single source of community initiatives and was established to support not-for-profit community or sporting organisations to make positive improvements benefiting the wider community.

Food Assist 3223 president Prue Drever said the food assist program was extremely grateful to be selected in this year’s CCF and will use its $2,500 share to purchase more food for residents doing it tough.

“We’ve always been really grateful for the club’s support.

“It’s really tough out there and without the golf club, I don’t know where we’d be as a group because we don’t receive funding outside of donations and we’re 100 per cent community supported.

“We’re all volunteers, our numbers have skyrocketed, it’s really quite frightening out there, but we’re eternally grateful for the support the golf club has shown us here, it’ll make a huge difference.”

Geelong Youth Engagement’s funding will go towards the improvement of its road safety program, RSL Portarlington and St Leonards will use its $2,500 to go towards renovations for its Pratt Room, and Lifeline’s $5,000 will be used to enhance the training and development of its critical services.

The original scope for this year’s funding was $12,000, but due to necessity of extra funding for the recipients, the total was increased to $15,000.