Jan Juc Playgroup celebrates Christmas

THE Jan Juc Playgroup celebrated another successful year at its Christmas party last week.

The group gathered at the usual place at Bob Pettit Pavilion for two hours of fun, including a disco with Willow Star, rides on the Lions Train, face painting, a lucky dip, craft, and special visits from the Playgroup Victoria bear and Santa.

Playgroup president Sarah Minter said the playgroup was going from strength to strength, with membership rising to about 80 members.

“We’ve got four sessions a week going, from Monday to Thursday.

“People join up and they can come to as many or as few sessions as they want to for the year, so we find some people are here four days a week and some people are here once a month, and we’re happy either way.”

She said the playgroup was hoping to increase its membership (which includes dads, grandparents and blended families) in 2019 and potentially start a toy library.

Kate Eddiehausen has only recently moved to the area, and is now on the playgroup committee.

“I’ve moved around a lot – we’ve just moved from South Australia – and we’ve joined a lot of playgroups as we’ve moved in small towns,” she said.

“The moment I emailed to inquire, they were super-welcoming; not just like the one-line reply, you felt like they actually wanted you to come with your kids, which is good. You come to a new town, you don’t know anyone, but they made sure someone was here to meet me on the first day to show me around, and all the mums – even the mums not on the committee – were super-welcoming and made an effort to talk to us.”