Amanda and I visited Carey this morning to speak at the Hickman House Chapel Service. It was a terrific morning. There were many more people present than at the service we attended last Tuesday. It will be fascinating to see how the Servants/Carey relationship progresses in the months ahead.
Category Archives: Giving, Donations, Fundraising
Carey. Morning #1
This morning Amanda and I visited Carey to speak at the Chapel service of one of their 10 houses. It was an excellent morning. What I had to say was very well received. One of the Chaplains has already asked me to speak to some of his younger students at a later date. An offering was held – raising over $1000 for Servants.
We visit another of the houses this coming Sunday morning for a repeat performance.
Both of these houses have chosen Servants as their charity of choice for 2014. There will be several house events throughout the year that will raise funds for Servants.
Hostile and mud sticks
Last Friday I met with a teacher at Carey who expressed concern with the fact that 2 of her students are going to be involved in our new book project. The upshot of this conversation was that I satisfied her questions and she will be visiting Carrical in the very near future to have a look for herself. I write this to let you all know that although we are more often than not met with generosity and open mindedness we are still, in many ways fighting an uphill battle. The teacher concerned was an ex-cop and had prejudices against rooming houses, the mentally ill and those without jobs in spades. Indeed, if the aforementioned were Olympic disciplines she would have won a swag of gold. Appreciating fully that she does of course have a duty of care to her students her manner and questioning of me/Servants was appalling – not to mention ignorant. Originally I was not intending to Pulse this story – however, Warren, quite rightly I believe, encouraged me to do so. I am happy to talk with individuals about this meeting if so desired. In general life is pretty tough for those we house – made all the more difficult when community opinion is as dreadful as I encountered recently. The positive? This makes me still more determined to represent well and care for those housed by Servants and also that I feel Servants can questioned/challenged and we do have terrific answers and anecdotal stories to respond with.
Somehow this reminds me of one of my all time fave quotes. The legendary John Wayne once said ‘Life’s pretty tough ……………….. it’s even tougher if you’re stupid.’
Speaking at Carey
In the week ahead I have 2 speaking engagements at Carey chapel services. On both Tuesday and Sunday mornings I will be introducing the work of Servants to Carey. I have been given the theme of ‘making a difference’ to talk to. Nice!! These speaking engagements are significant as I see a very important Servants/Carey relationship about to commence.
Hawthorn Community Chest
At their request I met with HCC earlier this week. They quickly fell in love with Servants and are already talking of helping us with significant sponsorship $$$ for the Narrative book. Exciting times!
Team Servants ’14 update
Last week the total of runners for Team Servants ’14 DOUBLED. I know, impressive eh? We went from Matt to Matt and Zoe!! We are on our way!
I am so looking forward to this latest adventure. I am hoping that we will be able to encourage to even more resos to participate than last year – I am also hopeful that we will be able to raise significant $$$$ for Servants.
Thoughts sought ………
Our initial print run of Anthology was 5300. We then has another 5000 copies printed. There are about 3000 copies currently remaining.
I am looking for input into how many copies of Narrative we should look to produce when the time comes. I am thinking a minimum of 10,000 copies – possibly stretching to 15,000 – remembering that the price per unit decreases significantly with the more copies we print.
Your input would be appreciated!
Narrative
I have been in touch with Southern Colour – the mob who printed both editions of Anthology – and that have provided me with various quotes for various quantities of the new book. My initial idea is that we should print between 10,000 and 20,000 copies.
I had a very productive meeting with Balwyn Rotary yesterday morning and they will explore within their Club the idea of sponsoring all costs associated with the publishing of the book. Watch this space …………………
Flowers
Servants received many wonderful gifts over the Christmas period. One of the best were bunches of magnifique flowers. Now, don’t even think about asking me what they were as I have not the slightest idea, but they are beautiful and have made a fantastic contribution to helping Carrical look and smell amazing. I suggest we keep all of our houses in fresh flowers 100% of the time. If anyone would like to suggest how we might fund such a venture please let me know!
First mail
The first mail of the year at Servants saw the usual kind of mail delivered – alongside a donation cheque of $500. A nice start to the new year.
Josh F loves Servants
Not all committee members live in Boroondara/Kooyong.
Josh Frydenberg sent an email to folks within his Kooyong electorate today wishing folks a Merry Christmas. Alongside this he thanked all who gave to his Giving Tree appeal – which we of course were the beneficiaries of.
It has to be a good thing to have Josh F on board.
Christmas Eve. Part 3.
A one-off $250 donation was received today – courtesy of the insurance agency that one of our supporters works for.
Churches et al
Saturday was a terrific day for resos of both houses. The regular BBQ folks from Kew Baps and Christ Church joined forces to provide a stunning lunch time meal for Carrical resos and the folks from Canterbury Baps provided an evening meal and held a carol ‘service’ for Hamer resos. A handful of Carrical resos have gone to the Hawthorn Rotary/Foundation Boroondara Lunch today. To quote a former, esteemed Servants Chairperson: ‘Everyone loves a homeless person at Christmas!’ True. And I will milk it, on behalf of the resos, for all it’s worth!!
Christmas Eve and Christmas Days at the houses are looming large as days of great merriment and feasting.
Giving Tree, lunch, Peter, more lunch, Gretto and the ongoing saga of Matt’s laptop.
Today Josh Frydenberg (the self proclaimed Jewish Father Christmas!) arrived at Carrical to drop off all the goodies from his Giving Tree appeal. There was $4650 in cheques to Servants from local businesses and individuals. There were quality blankets, amazing foods and Coles vouchers galore. In all there was probably about $10,000 worth of cheques and stuff. A pretty staggering outcome really!
In other news today there was a Narrative book lunch at Carrical which gave our editor, Zoe, a great opportunity to meet many of the resos. It was lovely to eat in the beautifully air conditioned dining room!! Narrative is going to be an enormous success.
One or two of you will know of our resident Peter Dewhurst and some of the very serious physical health conditions he has been struggling with of late. He is currently back in hospital – I encourage you to keep Peter in your prayers.
Hawthorn Rotary has invited our resos to what I understand will be a pretty posh lunch this Sunday.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of the passing of Terry Gretton. Both personally and professionally I feel very blessed to have known Terry – even for all the all too short time as it transpired.
My laptop has been sick 3 times in the past 5 weeks. The friendly chaps at BusinessWorks in Camby showed it some TLC this morning and brought it back to full health. Insignificant? No, HUGELY significant!!
Donation
A cheque from the recently held Trinity Year 11 Trivia Night was received in the mail on Thursday – a very welcome $561.