Christmas 2019 was a huge success!
Christmas Lunch
We had 63 clients, many accompanied by case workers, join us for a festive lunch on Christmas Day under our double carport. Our volunteers served them drinks and nibbles, followed by a turkey, ham, chicken with rice, prawns and salad, finished off with Christmas pudding, custard and cream. Then we got to the good part, we gave out presents! Everyone shared some laughs and had a fantastic time.
Personalised gift parcels
We delivered 890 personalised gift parcels filled with toiletries, socks and lollies, to men and women across NSW living in:
- 6 Assisted Boarding Houses
- 47 Group Homes
- 28 Aged Care facilities
- 33 people living independently with support
Our parcels travelled throughout Sydney, to the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Sutherland Shire and the Central Coast.
Festive Food Hampers
We organised double washing basket hampers filled with festive food, and got those out to five Assisted Boarding Houses in Sydney. One of our long term volunteers and supporters, Greg Bombell, from Exercise Prescription and Physiotherapy in Burwood, helped raise funds to buy and deliver a ham to each of these Assisted Boarding Houses too – he even rallied up some of his clients to donate some additional festive food!
Toiletry, Food and Gift Hampers
We prepared 490 gift hampers containing a complete range of toiletries, enough basic food for three days, festive food, a calendar and a gift pack for the clients of:
- Redfern, Marrickville and Canterbury Mental Health teams
- The Mobile Assertive Treatment team
- The Camperdown Core teams including The Case Management Team and Aboriginal Mental Health
- Royal Prince Alfred Drugs Health team
Christmas Cards
A coded system allows members of the public to send a personal Christmas card to one of the 890 people on our database. This year we distributed 14,000 coded labels! Cards come back to the Gethsemane post box and were re-directed to the actual facility where the individuals live. These people never receive personal mail, so the cards were greatly enjoyed. They often use the cards to decorate their room or the walls of their boarding house.
From the bottom of our hearts, a huge thank you to EVERYONE involved! This was a mammoth task, months in the making and couldn’t have happened without all of your support.