Pack mentality responsible for massive donation from Tigers

AFTER countless acts of goodwill, the Torquay Tigers Football Club has mustered an extraordinary effort receiving donations from all 29 of its junior sides to give to a Geelong-based foundation to help families in need.

All of the donations made to the club so far will be given to the Geelong Mums Foundation to assist families requiring items such as blankets, cots, small clothing, nappies and more.

According to head administrator of the Tigers, Susan Tute, the call out for contributions was originally made a couple of weeks ago when one of the mothers at the club, Emma Hayword, who volunteers at the foundation as a teamwork assistant, approached the club to see if anyone wanted to give back.

Not even Mrs Tute expected the kind of response the club would answer with after a donations drive was organised during the past week, because as it currently stands more than a thousand different items have been provided to the club.

“It has been overwhelming just how much support the local Tiger teams have given, I am speechless,” she said.

“As I work as the admin here at the club, I was able to get a hold of all the coordinators in each of the teams and they started asking for donations.”

Each coordinator was then given a laundry basket each to fill up and, since then, the pile has been growing consistently.

Donations continue to arrive, ranging from nursing pads to most recently an abundance of hand-woven scarves and blankets, with all of the items on display in the main pavilion.

Based in South Geelong, the Geelong Mums Foundation was established in the April of 2013 by a small group of local mums.

In their first 12 months, the mothers worked from a small shed and their own homes helping more than 300 families.

Today, Geelong Mums is now a branch of the St Kilda Mums organisation, who also manages the third of three branches in Ballarat, the Eureka Mums.

The network now provides families in the outer regions of Victoria with goods in working, safe and clean condition for babies and children.