2011 OTCA Christmas Drive

[gantz]

Fantastic initiative guys, count me in

[UltraMarginal]

Great work, Bowspearer. I'm definitely happy to fall behind this as I haven't organised it this year as I did last. It was my hope to redo it this year but I just haven't been able to. I have over the course of the year though purchased cheap toys to donate and will be more than happy to contribute to this effort.

My apologies. I haven't been in a position to follow up this year as I've had to manage a lot of things in my personal life. I have been in touch with the charities and I'm not sure how many are aware but Orana Family Services is ceasing operations after a nasty media incident earlier this year where one of the orphans ran off while on excursion (being mischevious) which placed enormous pressure on Orana as the mainstream media bombarded it for "abandoning" a child.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/ch...824-1jacz.html

It's very unfortunate and it's a reminder how difficult it is to manage such orphans. As tragic as their backgrounds are, they are real kids with often more than real idiosycracies that do not make them easy to look after. Having attended and met with the children, I admire the work that was done there as well as the staff who had worked hard to do right by these kids. Broadmeadows / Meadow Heights (where Orana is located) is not an easy place for a youth to grow up, let alone an orphaned one.

The other organisation the IFYS I have been in touch with but as I was unable to organise this pre-October (when they do their planning, logistics and budgeting) we were not able to contribute but they will be keen for us to help again next year.

So in short, I do feel bad for dropping the ball this year but will aim to get things back on track next year as hopefully things settle down for me. In the meantime, I'm more happy to get behind any other initiatives anyone may have.

Wow, it's a pity to hear about Orana, I am surprised though that there is such a demand for this type of organisation that millions in subsidisation is not enough and there are multiple organisations around like this.
Hopefully the families and children effected haven't been too heavily displaced.

No worries STL, we all have busy years, I know I haven't had time to scratch my self over the last few months.

Looks like the giving tree is the plan for this year and a great one.

For those of us who have never used it before, how do we put items under it, do you need to register with Kmart Staff or can you just walk in and place an item under the tree?

[crankcase76]

For those of us who have never used it before, how do we put items under it, do you need to register with Kmart Staff or can you just walk in and place an item under the tree?[/QUOTE]


pretty easy ultra, went in today and aquired 3 cyberverse legions and asked the girl at desk. all you do is fill out a tag with who it is for eg Boy/Girl, Age and who it is from. then you drop it in the santa's express trolley. and they will drop it in.


Bowspear, aquired Legions Skids, Bumblebee and Barricade. looked for the HA Figures and they are all out at the penrith store so this was the next best thing i could find. So can you add these 3 to your tally.

[UltraMarginal]

pretty easy ultra, went in today and aquired 3 cyberverse legions and asked the girl at desk. all you do is fill out a tag with who it is for eg Boy/Girl, Age and who it is from. then you drop it in the santa's express trolley. and they will drop it in.

cool that sounds easy enough

[bowspearer]

Great work there Crankcase, added to the tally . Incidentally, I'll keep an eye on this situation on my end but as I'm down at my girlfriend's currently and she's a block away from our local Kmart; if anyone wanted to go down the HA Basic road but had no luck, I can always play middleman as well. As of yesterday, the local Kmart had about 15 of them in.

[crankcase76]

cool Bowspear , finally got some more stock here i think? will check out my local kmart and see if any more have popped up there.

[UltraMarginal]

2 Deluxes purchased at the TRU sale and donated to Target Chatwood.

[Ace]

I paid for and put a HA sandstorm down under the Kmart christmas tree last night. its a great feeling guys! if you havent yet got involved, jump in!

[Defcon]

I just looked on the kmart wishing tree website, they have recieved about 57,000 donations so far, not sure if this is an old figure. Anyway the target is 470,000. Thats an impressive amount. I never really thought about the Kmart wishing tree appeal until reading about it here!

Thanks im really keen to do something now. You can purchase gifts from other retailers besides Kmart and homemade items are accepted also, this is what I read on the website.

[Mr Ed]

I read somewhere also that you can either wrap the present or not.

If you do wrap it, it will be carefully unwrapped to verify the contents.

I am thinking that I will wrap half of it, leaving the rest to be exposed for verification.