Friday Night Drinks with Levantine Hill
Levantine Hill and the Charity Drive Days Family would truly appreciate your help to raise much-needed funds for our Charity Partners, who like us, won’t just do nothing during this challenging time.
Please join us in spirit until we can next catch up in person.
Book Your TicketsWe need your support
Like everyone, Charity Drive Days have had to cancel plans and adapt to the current environment. For a few weeks we had resigned ourselves to the fact that our May event would not go ahead, and there was not much we could do. Then we received an email from David Rogers (below), CEO of Challenge, and we realised quickly that we couldn’t just do nothing.
So, it’s time to wind down in your own home and together let’s raise some money for our beneficiaries like we have done in May for the last 10 years.
Levantine Hill has once again come to the table in support and are supplying the wine for this out of the ordinary Charity Drive Days event – Friday Night Drinks with Levantine Hill.
The Charity Drive Days Family would truly appreciate your help to raise much-needed funds for our Charity Partners, who like us, won’t just do nothing during this challenging time.
Please join us in spirit until we can next catch up in person.
Tickets available:
$500 Family Donation
Receives 2 complimentary Levantine Hill wines
$250 Couple Donation
Receives 1 complimentary Levantine Hill wine
$150 Individual Donation
David’s Email
From: David Rogers
To: Charity Drive Days Team
Good morning Gentlemen,
I know that all of you will be grappling with the same issues and dilemmas that we at Challenge are facing.
As of Friday 20 March, Challenge has had to suspend all programs and services until further notice. This is an unprecedented situation and the reason for this is to ensure that we protect the most vulnerable people, the children and families we support.
Hospitals around the country have closed their doors to all external parties as well as reducing visitors to one per family. This automatically creates many issues, one being families no longer able to see each other. An example of this would be a current family of eight children who live in Albury Wodonga. Mum is home with the kids and dad in RCH with their daughter. They periodically did change-overs but unfortunately now the mum has not seen her sick daughter for six weeks and due to the changes that have rapidly occurred, this will be extended indefinitely.
The pressure on not only the mum and seven siblings but also on the dad and daughter is enormous. Finances are at risk and these types of stories, although not as large a family, are happening all over the country. We had originally organised for this family to have a week away in a very large accommodation property, which has now had to be cancelled. With regard to our properties, we have closed them all for the time-being however, we have a family currently staying in Blairgowrie, where the young lady who is staying there is palliative. The family discussed with us how important it was for Hope’s mental health, for them to get away.
We have a number of families who are going through the end of life stage, who we will try to keep communicating with and assist where possible. The biggest issues will be the restrictions that are being enforced upon everyone, which is understandable.
With regard to our staffing, we have put them on enforced leave and will begin to stand them down in the next few weeks. Our goal is to be able to operate and function once this world dilemma comes to some kind of conclusion. I fully understand that when we can open again is an unanswerable question.
We will still try to be working on projects that are already underway, ie. Healesville and we hope that we can make the necessary arrangements to get that finalised as soon as possible.
In terms of other programs that we are endeavouring to get up and running, these would include online music and art therapy, and communication with our Hospital Coordinator and families to work on mental health issues, as well as some financial assistance.
Some other areas that we are looking at include possible online tutoring and food hampers. This week we have just been resourced with 20 Easter hampers which is wonderful. They are in quarantine as we speak and will be delivered next week to families. We would like to do more but that would come down to purchasing and organising more hampers. We are still paying for ongoing Scholarship recipients which will definitely come in handy for those families.
I am currently in discussions with the Board and we are about to allocate $20,000 which will come directly from the Charity Drive Days funds for food and petrol vouchers. These will be allocated after consultation with social workers around the country. It will be the social workers who help us determine which families are in desperate need, but we will also have our hospital coordinator calling families on a regular basis. This is a starting point.
I have attached some images of our Art Therapy book that has just been produced. As you know, Charity Drive Days sponsored our Art Therapy program and this is a great tool for families to understand what this service provides. Within the book, which I have a copy for you, some of the children who participated, have sadly passed away since that time.
It is our hope that all Challenge programs and services will reconvene as soon as possible. Thank you again for everything you have done for Challenge over the years, we are extremely grateful.
I hope you and your families stay safe and take care.
Kind regards
David
David Rogers OAM
Chief Executive Officer
Challenge – supporting kids with cancer
