LOVE in Action, a charity supporting residents in the Mitchell Shire under financial strain to put food on the table, are thrilled that its president, Sarah Brewer has been rated Westfield’s 2025 local hero.
Along with the rating, Westfield Plenty Valley Shopping Centre donated a whopping grant of $20,000 to the charity last Tuesday at a live announcement.
“I don’t know exactly who nominated me,” she said.
“I met the two other nominees yesterday and the calibre of people I was up against was amazing.
“Every Westfield has a local hero; all over Australia. It’s nice to see an organisation like that put their money where their mouth is when it comes to supporting their community.”
Love in Action was founded ten years ago in the living room of Mrs Brewer’s parents, Jeremey and Susan Scrivens.
The couple wanted to give back to the community after they supported them through their son’s brain cancer journey.
Since then, the organisation has enlisted the help of friends and volunteers to make Love in Action what it is today – a juggernaut charity with its core operations happening live on Facebook.
Mrs Brewer has lived in Wallan for 14 years and shares the joy of volunteering with both her husband and daughter. During business hours, Mrs Brewer is a secretary to a surgeon at the Epworth hospital in Richmond.
“I couldn’t do what I do without my amazing team of 15 volunteers who do the most amazing everyday work of getting food to people,” she said.
“I just do the behind-the-scenes stuff. I don’t know whether this [Love in Action] would happen in some of the bigger areas across the state.
“Our purpose as humans is to be able to help each other, and to see that it is not lost, that people still want to help their fellow neighbours, is massive.
“Although $20K is mind blowing, it has to be stretched across 12 months due to the sheer amount of volume of what we are trying to achieve.
“We will still need a lot of help this Christmas. We like to give all the kids on our books, (and parents), a brand-new gift. Something that has never been used because there is nothing like waking up on Christmas Day to a brand-new gift.
“We’ll be able to use a portion of the funds to help with our Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter food hampers and we also have an annual Christmas gift appeal.
“To give you some sort of idea, this Christmas alone we are looking to help 200 to 300 local families in the Shire and some of them have four or five children each, a rough estimate is we need 900 gifts to give this year.”
People can help by donating non-perishable food items, which are not out of date, to any of the Love in Action containers located at businesses around the Shire, including the Review.
To learn more, contact the charity on their webpage, loveinactionwallan.com
