Home Page | Rotary Club of Keilor

Kevin Nolan

Member Birthdays:

Mary Engert

January 5
Harold Simpson

January 18

Join Date:

Liz Beattie

January 27, 2015

11 years
Maxine Knight

February 1, 2005

21 years
Joe Raimondo

February 19, 2001

25 years

2025 Christmas Bag Project – Kent said it all

Kent's circumstances and his story of not having anyone to share Christmas with, and asking for his hamper to be put under his tree so that he had something to open on Christmas Day, is a summary of our whole project - just multiply it by 100.

Kent's representative situation, his delight and his thanks, underline the community value of this project, and reinforce why it continues to be such a rewarding one for our Club and its members.

The Rotary Club of Keilor has now been undertaking its annual Christmas Bag project for more than 20 years. The project provides Bolton Clarke Community Nurses with 100 Christmas Bags to deliver to their most elderly, isolated, restricted and socio and economically restricted patients in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

It’s a massive effort every year to fundraise, seek cash and product donations, pick up, store and eventually pack the bags for the Community Nurses to collect and deliver in the days leading up to Christmas. Packing is an all of Club effort, and this year we had some great volunteers and family members to support us on our packing night.

As a result of the assistance we received for the project for Christmas 2025, including through product donations, Club fundraising and the support of a Rotary Foundation District Grant, we were able to deliver a value approaching $14,000 ($140 each) to the 100 recipients of the Bags.

Look at the photos and read the storyboards – they are what convince us to come back every year.

Rotary Club of Keilor's 100 Xmas Bag Project

As Christmas approaches, the Rotary Club of Keilor is again busily preparing for its annual ‘100 Christmas Bags’ project.

For more than 20 years, this project has seen 100 gift bags distributed by Bolton Clarke Community Nurses to their most isolated, restricted and loneliest patients in the Moonee Valley and Brimbank local Government areas.

Often, recipients of the Christmas Bags do not have a network of family, friends or community, and the Club’s aim is to offer these people some small measure of comfort and joy at Christmas time. The bags always contain basic food supplies, toiletry and personal care items, as well as some seasonal ‘goodies’ that, together, go some way to providing meaningful support and an uplift in spirit.

‘The generous Christmas Hampers received by our clients from the Keilor Rotary Club have been wonderful and have really made a difference to the people who received them,’ said a representative of Bolton Clarke Community Nurses after last year’s distribution. One recipient, Anica, said ‘I am very surprised as I don’t receive many surprises nor gifts. It brought tears to my eyes, and it has made my Christmas feel wonderful.’

The President of the Rotary Club of Keilor, Norm Darper, explained that the project depends heavily on the Club’s own fundraising, as well as monetary and other donations to fill the bags. In 2025, the Club is also grateful for the support of The Rotary Foundation, in the form of a District Grant for the 100 Christmas Bags project.

October Economic and Community Development

Covid Protective Equipment

In late February 2024 our Rotary Club was asked by Holloway Aged Care facility in Keilor East if we could assist it by disposing of a huge accumulated quantity of excess, brand new, Covid 19 Personal Protective Equipment, comprising:

104 cartons of Surgical Gown Packs (20 packs per carton)
117 cartons of Cuffed Isolation Gowns (108 cartons of 50 & 9 cartons of 100)
16 cartons of XS D95 Masks (600 masks per carton)
16 cartons of Goggles (200 Goggles per carton)

So, it was 253 cartons (comprising almost 21,180 individual items, with a conservative value exceeding $50,000) – enough to fill a small shipping container, and so much that it had rendered Holloway’s Community Hub unavailable for its daily activities.

All of our initial offers to major hospitals and health facilities went nowhere because it seemed they all had the same issue – they also were holding huge supplies of their own.

We began the distribution with a trickle of smaller deliveries, some to the Rotary District D9800 Donations in Kind Store, some to a local Medical Centre, and some to a medical research facility, but it was time for some lateral thinking if the project was to be achieved.

A preliminary check with a major animal rescue service and a large Veterinary Hospital brought no results, but a few “dog with a bone” members came to the party to the extent that all 253 cartons of equipment found new homes by mid-April – providing recipients with resources and cost savings that they value highly.

Large quantities of equipment went to animal rescue and veterinary services, including:

Second Chance Animal Rescue

Essendon Animal Referral Hospital
Cat Protection Society of Victoria
Unusual Pet Vets
Karingal Veterinary Hospital

Many cartons of Goggles went to Men’s Sheds, including at Aberfeldie, Strathmore, Brimbank, Melton, Taylors Hill, Sunbury, and as far as Birchip. The Sunbury Men’s Shed also requested some gowns to placate wives who were sick of trying to clean resins and glue from member’s clothes.

Last carton loaded – and the Community Hub is clear and available for its intended use.

The project was a great challenge - and in the end we were up for it.

JOB DONE.

Rotary Exchange Student

Rotary Club of Keilor is sponsoring a Rotary Exchange student Irene Anderson Pett who is now in Germany.

Recent photos were taken at the Blazer Presentation for our outbound students:

Rotary Exchange students are recognised by their Rotary Youth Exchange blazer. The colour of the blazer usually depends on which country or region the exchange student is from, Australia being Green. One Rotary tradition is that students cover their blazers in pins and patches they have traded with other students or bought in places they have visited as evidence of their exchange. It is popular for the students to bring a large collection of national- or regional-themed pins and trade them with students from other areas. This tradition is popular worldwide.

We had the pleasure of District 9800 Governor Ron Payne presenting the blazers to the students.

To add to the occasion, a special presentation from PDG Grant Hocking to Barry and Vanda Mullen recognising their significant contribution to The Rotary Foundation

Our Club wishes Irene great happiness for her Rotary Exchange in Germany with her host families

2025 Christmas Bag Project – Kent said it all

Kent's representative situation, his delight and his thanks, underline the community value of this project, and reinforce why it continues to be such a rewarding one for our Club and its members.

Look at the photos and read the storyboards – they are what convince us to come back every year.