As Christmas approaches, the Rotary Club of Keilor is again busily preparing for its annual Christmas Bag project.
For more than 25 years, the project has seen 100 gift bags distributed annually by Bolton Clarke Community Nurses to their most isolated, restricted and loneliest patients in the Brimbank and area.
Often, the recipients of the Christmas bags don’t have a network of family, friends or community, and the aim is to offer them some small measure of comfort and joy at Christmas time.
With a retail value of about $125, the bags contain basic food supplies, toiletry and personal care items, as well as some christmas treats, aiming to provide meaningful support and an uplift in spirit.
Organiser Norm Draper, who has been involved in the project for more than 20 years, said things are getting harder every year for patients, making the initiative more important than ever.
“We used to get lots of supply donations, but since the pandemic that has decreased, as everyone’s doing it that bit tighter,” he said.
“So monetary donations are so important for us to keep delivering the bags as we do.”
Mr Draper said the reason he keeps coming back every festive season is because the patients’ need for support never waivers.
“While the night of packing the bags is so much fun, and probably the biggest member turnout of the year, the best part is meeting the nurses when they come to pick up the 100 bags, and their excitement knowing they will be given to the patients that really need a boost in spirit,” he said.
The Rotary Club will be conducting a sausage sizzle at Bunnings, Taylors Lakes on Sunday, October 27 with all profits directed to the project.
Gerald Lynch
