Geelong Mums raise $60,000 in Christmas appeal

THE Geelong Mums Christmas Appeal has raised more $60,000, allowing the organisation to keep helping new mothers and their babies with daily necessities.

For the past two months, the giving appeal called on those in the community to give to those less fortunate, with nursing equipment, toys, prams, cots, clothing and books high on the agenda for mothers and their newborn children.

Geelong, St Kilda and Eureka Mums operations and impact manager Julia Roache said the fundraising effort was a fantastic show of support from the wider community, particularly with the rise in cost of living.

“Even though we didn’t reach our target of $75,000, to raise just over $60,000 is an amazing amount of money.

“The cost of living is crazy, we know across the board that charities have found fundraising really difficult and it’s hard for people to give, which we understand.

“We are still extremely grateful to the great people in this community who have supported us.”

Ms Roache said the money would go towards several areas of focus and would support keeping the doors open.

“The funds will allow us to make sure our volunteers can be there to safety check the items and to meet the donors,” she said.

“It means having enough materials to pump up tyres on prams and to put new sun shades on car seats and prams.

“It goes towards our universal program and all the costs that I guess people don’t see.

“It takes a lot of manpower to get the items back out there.”

Roache expressed her sheer gratitude to the wider community for being involved in the appeal and singled out Nathaniel Blyth’s incredible 440km-run fundraising effort, which raised just under $12,000 for the appeal.

The community can continue to support Geelong, St Kilda and Eureka Mums at any time of the year and can do so by heading to geelongmums.org

This month, Geelong Mums are seeking prams, near-new shoes, microwave sterilisers, wipes, body wash/soap and baby toiletries.