Sometimes life deals us a bad hand, and circumstances mean families are simply unable to afford food and necessities, let alone gifts. Many have experienced extreme disadvantage, trauma and vulnerability, and are connected with Windermere through one of our life-changing services.
We work at the core of the local community to assist those experiencing adversity. Merry Mission provides an opportunity to bring some Christmas joy to children and families who are doing it tough and would otherwise miss out.
Merry Mission has been running for over 10 years, and has provided more than 10,000 gifts and around 4,500 hampers to thousands of families across our community.
Lots and lots!
Windermere is an independent community service organisation, working across south eastern Melbourne and Gippsland, to help those who need it most. With a history spanning 160 years, we work to build a stronger, connected and supported community.
Our support comes in many forms; we work together to find the best solutions for the varied and complex issues faced by children, families and individuals in our community.
With a focus on intervention and prevention, we aim to get in early to make a difference in the areas of:
Our services are primarily funded through two channels - government and by our generous community of donors, to whom we are grateful.
We believe that everyone is someone in our community – this is reflected in our approach with those we work with every day.
There are so many ways you can support Windermere, here are just a few ideas:
For more information or to chat further contact one of the team fundraising@windermere.org.au or 1300 946 337
Never fear we have it covered!
We have created some useful digital assets for you to share Merry Mission, including an email template and a story highlighting how our appeal makes immediate impact to the lives of families we work. Just contact the team on 1300 946 337 or drop us an email fundraising@windermere.org.au.
As we find ourselves still fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and with the continuing health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, we have decided to replace physical gifts with digital vouchers to ensure we meet COVID safe guidelines. This ensures we maintain the personal touch of giving a Christmas gift while limiting to the risk of COVID-19 exposure for our families, volunteers and staff.
Hampers:
By purchasing a hamper, we will provide a family with an online voucher for a supermarket. This will provide families with choice to purchase the food products that best suit their needs.
Gifts:
By purchasing a gift, we will provide a family with an online voucher for a retailer (i.e. Kmart) to purchase gifts for their family or a specific family member (baby, toddler, child, teen, etc). This will provide families with choice to purchase the gifts that best suit their child or family needs.
Unfortunately, this year we are unable to accept donations of physical gifts or food items.