St Kilda Mums

St Kilda Mums News Update March 2012

2012-03-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

St Kilda Mums supports children and parents experiencing hardship. By participating you are part of a network of over 1,000 families that responds to requests for material aid. This aid is provided in practical partnership with hundreds of local social workers and maternal child health nurses, from dozens of welfare agencies. Together, all of us, do what we can.

Quick overview of statistics since our last newsletter:

Number of items re-homed: 725
Number of clothing bags: 156
Number of cots: 28
Number of prams: 54
Number of people in our network: 1134
Number of Facebook followers: 862
Number of volunteers: 38
Number of case workers: 284
Number of welfare agencies we support: 71

Recently Maya and Peta spoke with Penny Johnston from Baby Talk at ABC Radio about our beginnings. You can listen to the interview here.

We are delighted to introduce the Dandelion Support Network, our new sister organisation in Sydney, who we have happily supported and assisted with their set-up, sharing as much of our learning as we can. Please let your Sydney friends know about this group. We are keen to help groups of mums set up all over Australia.

The Christmas Art and Craft Hampers were very popular, and we would like to thank everyone who contributed materials and time to putting them together. Our goal was to make up 100 packs but thanks to the generous sponsorship of Crayola, Micador and Colorific, 137 hampers were distributed in the week before Christmas. The hamper idea was the the master stroke of Jessica Hewstone, the creative mind behind Apples and Jam, and she was supported by her sister Jemma and a team of volunteers to make the packs up. They look fantastic and were a real hit with case workers because they are not gender specific and this makes it very easy for them to pass on to their families.

We would like to thank some of our supporters for their generous donations:

Phil&teds have recently sent us replacement parts free of charge for several pre-loved prams as well as two brand new in the box prams just when we needed them. Learn more about their Buggies for Good program here.

Carrie Edwards from the Amazing Baby Company donated 10 new Baby Jogger City Elite Strollers to help with our February requests for prams. At one stage we had 19 families waiting for prams and we were able to meet all those requests within about three weeks thanks to Carrie and to everyone who donated their pre-loved prams. She also donated some wonderful nappy bags and toys.

Valiant Enterprises, makers of the ever popular Valco and importers of the classic Emmaljunga, have offered to supply replacement parts free of charge.

Final thanks to Deb Darcy-Fox, St Kilda Mum, who prepared a comprehensive digital reveiw for us before Christmas. You might have noticed changes to our website, which we hope will make it easier to find information about what, when and how to donate, as well as acknowledging our supporters and partners.

Treehouse St Kilda has chosen St Kilda Mums as their charity of choice for 2012. The parents' committee organises some great events to bring the school families together and raise funds for charity.

You have to until the 19th March to vote for your favourite projects in The Local Project. St Kilda Mums currently ranks fourth in the community category so please go to the website and vote for us and ask all your Victorian friends to do the same. If we are first or second place we will win $10,000 thanks to the Bank of Melbourne and the Herald Sun.

As for the next few week and our requirements, we still have a long wait list for double or tandem prams and strollers. Please ask around your mum friends, and hopefully we can find enough pre-loved prams to meet these requests. Or you can print this poster and put it up at your local school, kinder, childcare or maternal child health centre.

Cheers from all the mums at St Kilda Mums

Making two rubbish strollers into one fabulous stroller

2012-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Over January I rode with my kids to the local skate park past a discarded pram on half a dozen occasions. It was missing a front wheel - it had snapped and I saw no way to repair it. It was a good one too - a Steelcraft Profile. Lightweight, with a recline to almost horizontal, and a decent sized basket underneath. In early February we were donated the same pram with a broken handle and I dashed back to pick up the discarded one - knowing there had to be a way to repair one of them.

So I rang the lovely Catherine in customer service at Britax, the maker of the Steelcraft range of strollers and prams and she explained to me over the phone how the front wheels pop on and off. I took one front wheel from the donated pram with the broken handle and popped it onto the hard rubbish one with the missing front wheel. I then stripped the fabric and replaced it with the fabric and hood from the donated pram as it was in new near condition and required no cleaning. Its ready for its new home and I have in my spare parts a newly washed fabric seat and hood, and one spare front tyre.

Emmaljunga - the pram for special babies

2012-01-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

As some of you know we did a big clean out of our stock recently and made some tough decisions about what we should continue to carry as stock items and what we should not. We decided to take an old Emmaljunga pram (from the 70s) to the tip and as I threw it into the cavernous pit, a smart looking Volvo station wagon pulled up and a silver fox of a man sprung out of the car. He took one look at the pram and then told me that he worked at the Royal Women's and that it was a shame I had chucked it. He told me that these prams are brilliant for newborn babies on ventilators as the machine fits nicely in the basket under the bassinette...

I was lost for words, embarrassed and frankly indignant! We have saved dozens of prams and cots and highchairs and carseat etc from a similar fate, or at least prolonged their life to safely care for another child or two. But I resolved to do one thing, talk to the Hospital about how we can get them the prams they need, when they need them.

How to clean a highchair (or pram or carseat)

2012-01-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

Check that it works & meet mandatory safety standards - using our safety checklist. Most highchairs are designed to be easy to clean. Remove the fabric, and put it in the washing machine on a hot wash with extra detergent. Scrub with a hard brush and some magical pixie dust AKA baking powder. Make a solution of baking powder and castile soap with a bit of water to clean.

In earlier centuries, an all-vegetable based soap was made in the Castile region of Spain from local olive oil. By the turn of this last century, "Castile" had come to mean any vegetable oil-based soap, versus animal (tallow) fat-based soap. Castile Soaps are a pure and simple liquid soap, not a complex blend of detergents. Castile Soaps do not contain any synthetic foaming agents or detergents. Melrose castile soap now comes with a pump that foams so the kids love it. You will find it at your local health food shop.

Once its scrubbed clean hose it down to get in all the sides etc. Do this on a sunny and hot day so all the parts dry very quickly. Check out the St Kilda Mums Facebook page for some before and after photos.

Same principle works on prams and car seats.

Hard Rubbish - Too good to be true?

2012-01-07T01:55:00.000-08:00

Question: Just wondering what number to call when I see prams, cots, change tables etc out on the nature strip.

Answer: St Kilda Mums is run by volunteers, all mums ourselves, and for this reason we do not publish any of our phone numbers. If you find a great piece of nursery equipment in the hard rubbish, you are welcome to pick it up and take it home with you if you have a car. We would then ask that you check it carefully using our product safety checklist before contacting us. Often there is a very good reason why an item is discarded but it may not be easy to spot.

Mums making a big difference

2011-11-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

St Kilda Mums Peta and Maya were interviewed by Penny Johnston of ABC local radio Babytalk.
Here is the introduction to the interview written by Penny. "There is nothing that makes you feel more connected with your local community than having a baby. Suddenly you connect with other parents at the park, you meet a new group of people through your maternal child health nurse and mother's group. Just turning up at the local shops with a pram makes you a focus for people you would never have met in any other circumstances. For some of us that translates into wanting to be able to give back in some significant way and one group who have managed it magnificently is a collection of mothers who are known as 'St Kilda Mums'. Find out how they've managed to change their little corner of the world for the better."

News Update November 2011

2011-11-06T03:37:00.000-08:00

This holiday season we have three donation drives for gifts, and invite you to get involved.

Pre-schoolers - Jessica Hewstone is putting together 100 art and craft kits. If you have any art and craft materials (unopened) to donate please contact Jess directly by email - enquiries@applesandjam.com.au or phone 9682 6367. The hampers will be packed next Tuesday the 6th December.
School Age Kids - Sue Calvey & Desi Athanasiou are helping The Mirabel Foundation provide presents for underprivileged children. The Mirabel Foundation assists children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use and are now in the care of extended family. If you would like to get involved please contact Sue 0409 511 841 or sue.calvey@toyota.com.au or Desi 0409 002 711 desi.Athanasiou@toyota.com.au
Teenagers - St Kilda Youth Service has asked us for help with gifts with the young people they support (some of them young mums). Please email admin@skys.org.au if you are able to help or for more information.

We would like to thank some of our supporters:

Carrie Edwards from the Amazing Baby Company donated a brand new Baby Jogger Double Pram for the mum with four kids under seven who walks three kms to the station each day to take her kids to school. St Kilda Mums was able to pay for a buggy board with money donated by Gary Peer Real Estate. Here is what the the caseworker had to say "The pram is beyond great - Mum said she could hardly believe it when she set it up. She has said the kids love it, esp the four year old who is able to stand on platform on the back (he even showed me he thought it was that cool). She said that people in the street had approached her and asked if they could buy it off her! Comments she has made "I am so lucky", "the kids love it", "I don't know how you got it for me". She really was ecstatic with it. She particularly loved that the children could recline as she could lower the seats back."

The City of Port Phillip donated $1000 for us to pay for the clear plastic bags we pack clothing, toys and linen in. These bags are our second largest running cost after insurance and they are ideal for presenting preloved clothing in. They display the contents beautifully, protect the clothing from damp, dust and dirt and can be reused over and over again.

Rebecca Spencer from Outlook gave us 3 large boxes filled with dozens of sunshades, pram snugglers and pram liners and other fantastic accessories. It is so important that babies and children are protected from the sun and we have been able to ensure all prams we give out have a sunshade.

A quick tally of numbers showed that we have doubled the number of items re-homed from last year to this. In 2010 we homed 710 items and to date for 2011 we have doubled this number to 1480 items. Since we started in 2009 we have re-homed 692 clothing bags, 222 strollers and prams, 84 cots, 68 cot linen sets, 84 carseats, 88 highchairs, 55 baby bjorns, 34 bikes, 21 breast pumps and 320 toy bags and hundreds of other miscellaneous items such as potties, baby baths, microwave sterilisers, safety gates, playpens, breast pads, change tables etc.

We try to ensure that each pram goes out with a sunshade, a rain cover, a newborn headrest and a pram snuggler. We try to get mattresses for every cot, and give those out with a starter set of linen - mattress protector, sheets and blankets. We are very proud of the reputation we have for quality and here is what some of the case workers have to say:

"Dear St Kilda mums, The work that you do is invaluable, and helps people to know that other people care. Having nice things can help to break the cycle of poverty, and for people who are trapped in a culture of poverty, having something nice can help them to feel normalised. For a mum or dad with young children, its lovely to walk down the street with a decent pram that’s not all ripped up, or dirty, and to have good clothes to dress the children in which at a very basic level ‘breaks the rules of wealth and division’, and creates a whole new set of expectations of life . I have seen children get their bundles of beautiful well presented clothes and the children open them up as if it was Xmas. Having some clothes or toys helps parents to nurture their children, and children can present well at school or kindergarten which ultimately helps with their learning process and integration." Gina Rennie, Case Worker, Families First, Uniting Care Connections.

"Just wanted to say a big thank you to all you wonderful volunteers who show so much care in the packs and goods you put together to pass onto our clients. It is such a pleasure each time I attend for pick up to be greeted in such a warm manner, your all so organised and ready to help. What you do really makes a difference in the lives of others. The vulnerable clients I work with are so grateful for the assistance provided and it so amazing to see the excitement, happiness and relief in their faces when forwarding the goods needed to care for their babies/toddlers. All the wonderful work you all do in collecting, sourcing and forwarding these items makes my job so much easier as it often very difficult to obtain these items from material aide agency’s especially with the strict eligiblitly criteria and restrictions. This frees up my time to provide the invaluable support and education around pregnancy and parenting that our clients need and so rightly deserve. Thank you once again." Vanessa Dhondee, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies.

"My reflection of St Kilda Mums would be that you are a fantastic group of mums providing a much needed service to families in severe need. You go above and beyond in terms of what you are able to deliver, the extensive range of items you offer and the quality of the items is unbelievable. Timely responses are received to enquiries from us (the support workers) and the flexibility in times and days that the lock up is open assists us immensely. Some comments that have come from new mums and pregnant clients I work with, all single mums on either New Start Allowance or Parenting Payments include: ‘WOW, all these clothes and toys look like new’ ‘I could never have afforded to buy all of this and it’s such good quality, thank you so much’ and I had one client who was totally overwhelmed by the generosity and ended up in tears because she was so incredibly grateful. Thanks again" Erin Forrest, Support Worker - Women, Youth, Families and Children East St Kilda, Hanover Welfare Services.

St Kilda Mums would like to thank these and the all hardworking family support workers and maternal child health nurses without whom we would not be able to find new homes for all our treasured baby gear. We admire their professionalism and genuine commitment to helping the families they work with.

The volunteers at St Kilda Mums will take a break over the holiday period. We will accept donations until Saturday the 17th December, and we start collecting donations again on 13th January.

Thanks again for your support and we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

All the mums at St Kilda Mums

News Update October 2011

2011-10-01T03:43:00.000-07:00

157 items were re-homed in September - including 8 prams, 8 car seats, 3 highchairs and 5 cots. Welcome to our new volunteers Anna, Kate, Liz, Helen and Simone and thanks for your help at our stock take working bee this last week. Welcome to all our new Facebook likers - we now have 487 likers.

This month we have the following requests for donations:
We have had a request from Hanover for help for a single mother in transitional housing with nine (!!!) children. This family needs a large fridge, large washing machine and a chest of drawers. Hanover can organise a removalist to pick up any donations so please contact Komal directly either by email or phone 0419 002 679. None of these items have mandatory standards so they dont need to be dropped to St Kilda Mums to check...
Prams, highchairs and cots are always in demand.
We are extremely low on boys and girls clothing ages 2-4 years
If you can assist with any donations please email us to arrange a drop off. The donation drop off address changes from week to week, so if you have future donations please email us first to find out the donation drop off address and days/times for this.

We would like to thank the following supporters:

The customers at Grill’d St Kilda who awarded St Kilda Mums with the biggest donation - $300 - during the month of September in the Local Matters programme. Thanks to all of you who supported us by taking your family to dine. My kids loved it...the lunchbox, the pencils, the juice...

The children from the Early Years @ Phoenix Park kinder group have come up with a lovely idea. They have decided to donate some of their unwanted toys, books and clothing to what they describe as "kids who don't have many things". They have arranged a collection over the next few weeks, and will donate everything to St Kilda Mums. What a great bunch of kids!

Inspired by the recent post regarding a Bhutanese family moving to the area with a 4 month old, Rachel put her (hardly used) exercise bike on eBay and pledged the proceeds from the sale to St Kilda Mums. It sold for $238. What a great way to kick off buy-nothing-new month...thank-you Rachel!

We would like to wecome and thank two wonderful new supporters - Narenna at Britax delivered 10 brand new Safe n Sound Discovery car seats and Kristy from Incy Interior delivered a brand-new-in-the-box Sophia cot to us. Thank-you thank-you thank-you!

Thanks to George & Sue Banjac from Baby Second Heaven in Dandenong for posting us the two sets of missing catches the fabulous double Mountain Buggies we received last month. We were able to get one went to the recently arrived Iraqi family of 5 within about a week. Here is our tip for cleaning your pram before you donate it to us, Step one - remove fabric from frame and wash off surface dirt in bath or better baby bath in garden (and water your roses). Step two - douse liberally with Sard spray. Step three - wash on your hottest cycle (mine does 90 degrees)
Follow these steps and your pram should come up like new.

Notes of thanks to share:

A note from Kim of Women's Health West. "Just wanted to let you know that the stroller I collected for one of my clients recently was the only positive thing that has happened to her in the last few months. We deal with such tragic cases, and always try to help the people ‘look for the positives’ in their often almost ‘shipwrecked’ lives, but the reality is - they often go through such extended turbulent times, that a simple fold-up stroller makes their lives so much easier (with dependency on public transport etc)…SO MUCH EASIER! So to you all, on behalf of the people who need that little something extra…

Note from Claire at Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies "I just wanted to say such a big thank you for the prams, cots, mattresses, clothes, linen and high chair. When I to you with the list of requests I did not expect to even get half of what you gave me so thank you so much. I called my families yesterday (refugees and asylum seekers) most of them said " how much will it cost me" when I said they were free they couldn't believe it! I'm looking forward to dropping it all of today and seeing their faces!!!!"

Thank-you note from Helen Zissis, Youth Support Worker, Catchment Youth Services - "Thank you St Kilda Mums so very much for the generous donations to the young mums we work with. They were thrilled and commented on the great quality of the items provided. Thanks again."

Coming Up:
Wednesday 23rd November we have been invited to present at Baby Greens - St Kilda Town Hall 10.30am - 12pm. We are part of a line up of environmentally-friendly ideas that are good for your baby and our planet. Please make a diary note and we will forward the official invitation to you soon.

Cheers from all the Mums at St Kilda Mums

News Update September 2011

2011-09-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

This month we have the following requests for donations:

We are helping a local mum with an autistic child to start a Lego club for ASD kids. You can help by donating Lego and Duplo your kids no longer play with.
We are very low on girls clothing ages 1 to 5 years, and boys clothing ages 1 to 3 years.
We need bassinette and cot sheet sets, mattress protectors and blankets.
Prams, highchairs and cots are always in demand.

If you can assist with any donations please email us to arrange a drop off.

We would like to thank the following supporters:

Deborah from Homeground St Kilda who is holding a baby shower for her die-hard Beyonce fans in a few weeks and has asked for gifts to be donated to St Kilda Mums. Great idea - we love a baby shower.

Willy Wagtail who donated dozens of beautiful soft 100% merino baby's and toddler's rompers, frocks, onesies, cardies and leggings in a rainbow of colours.

Linda at Love N Care who sent us replacement safety gate screws free of charge - making the old new again.

We would also like to thank Gary Peer for their very generous donation of $1000. St Kilda Mum Nikki Janover works at Gary Peer and bought our network to Gary's attention. They are keen to support local initiatives.

Thank-you to St Kilda Mums, Edwina, Chelsea and Marguerite (of Mudpuddle, Spoilt and Babycinos) for helping us sell the "My mum is a St Kilda Mum" extra small KeepCups. We have hit our fundraising target but we still have a few spare so if you missed out on yours, please order by email directly.

Finally St Kilda Mums has been nominated to participate in the Grill’d Local Matters donation programme at Grill'd St Kilda (Acland Street) this month. Please do your bit to help us, spread the word and head on down to Grill'd St Kilda.

Cheers from all the Mums at St Kilda Mums

News Update July 2011

2011-07-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

Our fundraiser has got off to a great start but we still have many St Kilda Mums KeepCups to sell to hit our target. Please get in quick - not least of all because one of our volunteers has put the bill for all the KeepCups on her personal credit card and the interest free days will run out soon!!! All proceeds from the sale of the "My Mum is a St Kilda Mum" KeepCup go to covering costs of insurance, and for purchasing bags to pack your beautiful clothing donations in.

We would like to thank St Kilda Mum Edwina from Mudpuddle for reselling the KeepCups in her Chapel Street Store and online to help us out. Mudpuddle is open from 10:00am until 5.30pm, Monday - Friday and 9.00am-5.00pm Saturday, at 155 Chapel Street (near Carlisle) E-mail: sales@mudpuddle.com.au Phone: 03 9525 5195 http://www.mudpuddle.com.au

We have a couple of spots left in our volunteer induction meeting for next Wednesday evening at 8pm in St Kilda. Please contact us by email if you would like to know more about getting involved as a volunteer.

We have two sets of twins due in July to single refugee first-time mums (could it be more difficult!) who have recently moved into our neighbourhood from North Melbourne. We want to make these mums welcome. Please help us find twin prams or strollers and cots for these babies.

Finally we would like to share an article from The Age last week "The latest report into child deaths in Victoria highlights the urgent need for programs to help at-risk families as soon as children are born." Please read more here.

Thanks again for all your support

Cheers Jessie for St Kilda Mums

News Update April 2011

2011-04-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

This month St Kilda Mums celebrates our second birthday and what better way to
celebrate than with these two letters from our case workers:

"Thanks for the car seat. If you could have seen the mum’s face which expressed
her relief that finally she had a legally approved seat, you would be beaming too!
Of course our families seem to have 1001 worries, but your service enables them
to sleep with one less trouble” Kim Billington, Family Support, City of Port Phillip

“Thank you so much for the fantastic donations. I have been to the clients house
and passed them on and I just wanted to let you know how unbelievably happy
they were. It was honestly like an early Christmas. The work you do is fantastic
and you should all be so proud of the impact you make on people’s lives.” Natalie
Lewis, Homeless Children's Specialist Support Services at Hanover Welfare Services

Our network has now grown to 300 families, and we support over 160 social
workers from dozens of agencies in the greater Melbourne area.

We would like to thank two very generous supporters for their recent donations.

St Kilda Youth Service made a cash donation that will cover our insurance bill for
2011, and Complete Plumbing, a local business, who made a donation of shelving
for our lock-up. Here is a recent photo of the lock-up looking super tidy.

A quick tally of material donations made since our last update in December add up
to an additional 137 clothing bags, 19 prams, 52 bags of toys, 9 cots, 8 highchairs
and 10 car restraints.

We take the checked, washed, mended, repaired, labelled and bagged donations
to the lock-up garage in Elwood that is the meeting place for our St Kilda Mum
volunteers and the social workers for the many agencies we work with. They are
able to “shop” for the items they need for the families they support.

We would also like to thank the Latham family of Elwood for letting us use their
double garage and their neighbours for their support of St Kilda Mums.

New services to contact St Kilda Mums for material support include Victorian
Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, QEC and Good Shepherd
Youth & Family Service.

We hope we can help them and all the other organisations in 2011. If you'd like to
help, please post the attached flier wherever you think Mums might gather!

News Update December 2010

2010-12-01T02:48:00.000-08:00

The recent KeepCup fundraiser raised $297 and an additional $950 dollars were donated from our supporter base. A big thank-you to you all.

New services to contact St Kilda Mums for material support include Melbourne City Mission, Red Cross, Asylum Seekers Resource Center and Windermere Child & Family Services.

A quick tally of material donations made since we got started in March 2009 reveal 300 clothing bags, 105 prams, 75 bags of toys, 32 cots, 44 highchairs and 24 carseats have been recycled. A grand total of 978 items have passed through our hands; dropped of on our doorsteps, checked, washed, mended, repaired, labelled and bagged.

"It is so important that we take care of all people in our community and your contribution has been a massive inspiration. It has been wonderful to see the joy when my young mums receive your donations!" Lori Corallo, 2FAZE Teacher, St Kilda Youth Service.

Thanks again for your support, from all the mums at St Kilda Mums.

News Update July 2010

2010-07-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

Thank-you to all our supporters who have responded to our donation drive. The KeepCup fundraiser is going really well and we have had many kind offers of cash contributions, including a donation of $400 from the City of Port Phillip.

The KeepCup fundraiser runs until July 31, so please help us by letting all your friends know. The more we raise, the more Mums we can help.

We are very short of clothing for boys and girls aged one to three years so if you have anything you can contribute in these age groups please get in touch.

We still have six mums waiting for cots. We are able to met most requests for clothing, prams, highchairs etc but we never have enough cots. If you have have a cot in good condition please consider rehoming it through us.

Thanks again for your support, from all the mums at St Kilda Mums.

News Update May 2010

2010-05-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

St Kilda Mums has had a couple of very busy months. We are delighted to welcome four new volunteers to St Kilda Mums; Renee, Maya, Helen and Melinda. We say goodbye and a big thank-you to departing committee members Annegien and Evelyn.

We have secured a storage site close by in Elwood thanks for the generosity of a local family and as a response to the request for assistance that was published in the Port Phillip Leader. We will be able to accept more donations and help even more families. As we go into winter we are reminded how important it is to have warm clothing and bedding for our babies and small children.

Some recent testimonials from the tireless case workers we support include the following:
“We have so many young people who have become parents and they have no resources, they are in such need of basic items like cots and prams, which we can't always find for them. St Kilda Mums provide an essential community service in helping us meet the needs of these young people. Further to the resources that they provide, for our young people, knowing that there are people in the community that care about them and wish to support them gives young parents hope and a sense of community connectedness.” Emma Crichton, St Kilda Youth Service

“Each time I have contact with you I cannot but help thanking your for the tireless volunteer work you provide. In turn through your efforts we have been able to provide prams not only to families working with us in this office but also in our offices in the outer south, you have provided baby's bed for a mum who, due to family violence issues had to flee her transitional housing and live in emergency housing which consisted of motels and boarding houses, and today a cradle for a single mum who is a refugee, has no family or other supports in Australia and has a baby due in 7 days, and then there are the fantastic high quality clothes and oh some many other resources.” Karen Hagen, Connections Uniting Care.

Thanks again for your support, from all the mums at St Kilda Mums. If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please email stkildamums@gmail.com with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.

2010-03-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

A big thank-you for all of your donations that came in over the summer. Many of you have offered to volunteer your time to St Kilda Mums and we are holding our first get together next Wednesday March 10 at 8pm at the Grosvenor Hotel, Brighton Road, St Kilda East. Please RSVP if you would like to come along. All contributions are welcome and we look forward to meeting you.

St Kilda Mums has joined the phil&teds buggies for good programme. Owners of phil&teds products can give back to the community by simply returning their phil&teds gear when they’ve finished using it. This way phil&teds can re-vamp it or use the parts and give back to those in need. phil&teds donated three excellent vibe prams to St Kilda Mums in February. Learn more about buggies for good here.

We would also like to thank Linda from Love n Care for her donation of a junior bed for a young mum and her two year old daughter who are currently living in temporary housing. Love n Care supplies a wide range of prams, highchairs, nursery and baby safety products found in many stores in Victoria. For more information about their products and stockists please check out their website.

St Kilda Mums is now one year old! We did a quick tally and over the past 12 months we have re- homed 52 prams, 17 cots, 16 highchairs, 16 baby baths, 10 car seats, nine portacots, eight bikes, seven bouncers, seven nappy change tables, six baby carriers, six nappy change bags, five security gates, four activity mats and four carry cots. We have also made up dozens of clothing bags— although we are not entirely sure how many as we did not count in the beginning! All these items were saved from ending up in landfill. If you would like to get in touch please email us at stkildamums@gmail.com.

Cheers from all the mums at St Kilda Mums.

News Update December 2009

2009-12-01T02:51:00.000-08:00

Thank-you all for your support over the past very short 9 months. Here are some highlights to share:

We have found new homes for 126 nursery products that have been offered to St Kilda Mums through our network of contacts and in partnership with several opportunity shops in our neighbourhood.

We have washed, dried and sorted donations of babies and children's clothing to make up over 174 bags which have then been distributed through the maternal and child health nurses and the various social services that we work with.

We were nominated for the City of Port Phillip 2009 Civic Project of the Year, and received certificates of recognition for our endeavours.

Thanks again for being part of St Kilda Mums and
we wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year holiday.

News Update November 2009

2009-11-01T02:54:00.000-08:00

We are conducting our next donation drive at the Elwood Toy Library on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November from 9.30-11.30 am. Members of the St Kilda Mums Committee will be there to accept donations large and small. We are seeking donations of clothing, nursery equipment, educational toys, and safety items like powerplug covers. If you don’t know the toy library you will find information and directions here.

Here is a message from Ivana at Homeground: "Thank you very much for organizing the girl’s clothes yesterday. I am sorry that you weren’t present when I took the bag to my client. She had tears in her eyes and kept saying that it was just too much and it was way too kind. She asked me to convey her gratitude to you and all the mums involved."

Another from Sarah, Enhanced Care Maternal & Child Health Nurse: "Thank you all so much for the fabulous clothes packs which The St. Kilda Mum’s are putting together. Today I took clothes to a family of 4 children who have just arrived in Australia. They arrived with one suitcase for the mother and her 4 children! They will now be the best dressed children around!"

News Update October 2009

2009-10-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

Although September was a quieter than the month before, St Kilda Mums welcomed eight new mums to our network, and we were able to assist six families with material goods in addition to our clothing bags.

St Kilda Mum Jacqui is holding a fundraising event on the 24th October for the Starlight Childrens' Foundation Australia. Motivated to support her nephew with severe cerebral palsy, she has set her target at $20,000. For more information please click here.

St Kilda Mum Cheri's son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before his 1st birthday. Cheri's family and friends are participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes, an event that raises money to fund research into finding a cure for this chronic illness. To find out how you can get involved in this event please click here.

St Kilda Mums would like to hold a donation drive at your child's playgroup, day-care, kinder, toy library or school. To find out more please email us.

News Update September 2009

2009-09-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

This newsletter is to thank all the mums who have donated their time and materials to support our initiative. Just to give you a small idea of how your donation made a difference, in the month of August St Kilda Mums helped eight mums set up for the arrival of their new babies with cots, prams, slings, nappy change tables, monitors, breast pumps, highchairs, baby baths, linen, blankets, playmats and clothing bags.

We would also like to thank the very special people who work tirelessly to assist disadvantaged mothers in our neighbourhood. These are the family case workers with Uniting Care Connections, Sacred Heart Mission Women's House, Ardoch Youth Foundation, St Kilda Youth Service, Salvation Army Crisis Services, Home Ground Services, Port Phillip Community Group and of course the nurses within the Maternal and Child Health Service of the City of Port Phillip. Thank-you

News Update May 2009

2009-05-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

Hi St Kilda Mums

If you did not see it – there is an article about us in the latest Diversity newsletter.

This week we are gathering items for the mother of a premmie baby boy who is coming home from hospital next week. We have so far got the cot, mattress, nappy change mat, baby bath & sling, potty, and pram. We are looking for a bouncer, high chair and baby Bjorn or similar sling, monitor and thermometer and more baby linen – cot sheets, sleeping bags, bunny rugs, blankets, etc.

If you have anything you would like to donate please contact us for a drop off or pickup on stkildamums@gmail.com .

Cheers Jessie on behalf of St Kilda Mums