By Derek Schlennstedt
Aurrum Aged Care Facility in Healesville met with Healesville Inter-Church Community Care Inc. (HICCI) on Wednesday, 3 May and donated $1000 to the not-for-profit organisation.
The donation comes as part of a partnership between Aurrum and HICCI, with Aurrum providing support and offering staff to help volunteer. The aged care facility has strong connections to HICCI with various staff members and residents volunteering there.
Peter Cullen, facility manager at Aurrum Healesville said the decision to donate $1000 came as part of Aurrum wanting to give back to the community they belonged to.
“We were specific about what everyone at Aurrum wanted, we wanted a grassroots charity who was community-based,” Mr Cullen said.
“We wanted to start giving back to the community and a lot of our staff members are current volunteers, have been volunteers or had been recipients of the incredible generosity and help HICCI offer.”
HICCI president Rod Hysted and HICCI executive officer Alison Gommers attended the donation event that included the handing over of the cheque, a brief tour and tea with residents.
Current residents Olive Alder, Jenny Youngberry and Dorothy Hort were all founding members of the community group, and spoke about the inception of the organisation at the cheque handing over event.
“They spoke about their involvement in HICCI and how it started out; it was nice to incorporate that,” Alison Gomers, executive officer at Healesville HICCI said.
HICCI is a network of local Christian churches, which provide volunteer services including transport and emergency relief programs to the local community.
Both Peter Cullen and Alison Gomers said they looked forward to working more closely with each other.
