Giving is the theme for Kilmore Village this holiday season, with FamilyCare last week setting up a giving tree to give people the chance to donate presents for people in need.
FamilyCare is a support service that operates out of Wallan, Seymour and Shepparton, offering family, carer and disability support services to the greater Mitchell, Strathbogie and Murrindindi shires.
The giving tree program at Kilmore Village is run in conjunction with various businesses and organisations in FamilyCare’s service area, including Oddfellows Café in Kilmore, who also have a giving tree set up in the lead up to Christmas.
FamilyCare Lower Hume child and family services alliance coordinator Rowena Exell said the trees were a chance for the community to contribute to supporting people in need this Christmas.
“It’s generally just a way that we can get the community to support families in real need, and so the community can give back if they’re able to,” she said.
“There are people who are in need anyway, because of the economic climate, rising interest rates, the cost of living, and then the impact of the floods as well. It’s having a detrimental effect on people being able to even just buy gifts for their kids.”
Ms Exell said the giving tree was open to donations for people of all ages.
“The trees have got these tags on them with different age groups for the kids,” she said.
“So anything ranging from zero to two, all the way up to 18, there’s boys tags and girls tags, or it could be something for anything in between.”
Ms Exell said the idea behind setting up a giving tree at Kilmore Village was to capitalise on the new shopping centre and the large number of customers, as well as to cooperate with nearby shops for gift ideas and donations.
“It’s just been really great to work with somewhere where there’s more traffic coming through, and there’s heaps of gift ideas here from the shops around, so if people are feeling generous they can buy a gift or vouchers and drop it off at the tree,” she said.
FamilyCare aims to work with a wide range of organisations and businesses across its service area to provide service to people in need in the best possible way, with a range of different services also available to assist.
Programs and services on offer include counselling for men, relationship counselling, parenting programs, day stay programs for babies and their mums, as well as carer and disability support.
FamilyCare is also at the forefront of flood recovery in the Goulburn region and is working with other community organisations to help work through the recovery and rebuilding phase.
For more information on FamilyCare, people can visit www.familycare.net.au.
The giving tree at Kilmore Village is located outside News and Lotto and will be open for donations every day until December 20. For updates on Christmas events at Kilmore Village, visit www.kilmorevillage.com.au/whats-on.
