Hi All,
This week’s meeting, we were joined by Malcolm Armstrong, Mandy Costello and Elaine Smart. Elaine was our Guest Speaker for tonight talking about her involvement in the VIEW Club.
Apologies for this week where, Geoff Adcock, Gary Frank, GP, Ron Payne, Brian Fitzpatrick, Lynne Cooper and Tim Watts.
The Carlton United Quiz was won by John Jones who got all 5 questions right, Congratulations John.
Guest Speaker – Elaine Smart, gave us an inspiring talk on what the VIEW Club is. Elaine is a foundation member of the Bendigo Evening View Club. VIEW stands for: Voice, Interests and Education of Women.
VIEW Clubs of Australia is a national women's organisation, exclusively supporting the work of The Smith Family. Founded in 1922, the initial focus of the Smith Family (as a National Charitable Organisation) was to provide shelter and clothing and support families in hardship.
The Smith Family used to operate clothing shops, that role has since been taken over by Save The Children Fund. The 1980's saw another transformation needed. Families they supported were asked what they needed to truly help break the cycle of disadvantage. Their reply “Help us help our children get an education.”, thus an education focus commenced with a scholarship scheme.
VIEW clubs raise money to support these scholarships (called Learning for Life sponsorships) and the cost of each scholarship is matched financially by the Smith Family. There is an eligibility criteria linked to the Learning For Life sponsorship, along with an on-going commitments for families to support their child in school too.
Today The Smith Family work across 91 communities with 800 partnership schools in Australia to support for disadvantaged families. Last year they financially supported over 71,000 students through the Learning for Life program and 186,500 children and families were supported through other programs run in these communities.
In Bendigo:- The community consists of eight partner schools: Eaglehawk, Eaglehawk North, California Gully, Specimen Hill, Violet Street and Lightning Reef Primary Schools, Eaglehawk Secondary College and Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
The Smith Family have set an ambitious goal to reach 100,000 Learning for Life students Nationally. Currently there is approximately 900 local students on the Learning For Life
program.
Our BENDIGO VIEW Club sponsors 18 Learning for Life Students and the members correspond with these students. They are aged from 6 years to 21 years are scattered across Australia.
For more info: The Smith Family: www.thesmithfamily.com.au
VIEW Clubs of Australia: www.view.org.au
This Saturday we have the footy gates Geoff and I will cover this.
Sunday we are doing a Bunnings BBQ at Epsom Bunning, John have E-mailed the roster to everyone but if you are able to do a shift, please let John know.
Our meeting next week is my reflection on our trip to Türkiye which included taking in the experience of ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli
Mick Costello
Co-President
