Donation pumped into CWA

By Lachlan Ellis

A local CWA branch has thanked local business owners for a generous donation, with the branch brainstorming how best to spend the money.

The CWA Ballan & District Branch received a kind $2,000 donation from the owners of the Ballan Mobil Eastbound and Westbound service stations on the Western Freeway last month, to the delight of the Branch’s members.

Branch President Symone Barry said the Branch was honoured to be seen as worthy of the donation.

“We were thrilled, we couldn’t believe their generosity. What was really great was that when our Treasurer, Melanie, was going to deliver some produce from our market stall to the manager there at the Eastbound Mobil, they said, ‘We’ve decided to donate some money to you, we want to give you $1,000’,” Ms Barry told the Moorabool News.

“Melanie told me to come over and meet them…when I got there, they decided they were actually going to give us $2,000. So it happened just like that. We made the announcement at our September monthly meeting, and everyone was justifiably thrilled. The fact that they believed we’re doing good work, and saw us as worthy of their donation…we were surprised and honoured.”

Ms Barry said the donation was “icing on the cake” for the CWA Ballan & District Branch, with the cake being the solid work and reputation of the Branch.

“Our fundraising efforts are already strong, because of the commitment, dedication, and drive of our members who give to the community by being in the CWA. They volunteer their time to do that…we really value the CWA Victoria identity, and we want to honour the past, and the women that have come before us, but also bring our modern take,” she said.

“The really big thing for our Branch is that the money is sustaining. We want to create a relationship with whoever we give that money or benefit to. We want to be able to create something that’s going to, say, benefit someone in two years’ time, or five years’ time. We’re looking more so at something community based. For example, we had the Bushdance in 2019, which we got a grant for from the Ballan & District Community Bank Branch.

“We’ll think really hard about where this amazing gift can be spent for the most benefit, so we can set something up to benefit the wider community in the Ballan & District area.”