WA Western Suburbs VIEW Club

Once again WSVC members have enjoyed a busy, fulfilling year, February – September. Currently we have 68 members and we sponsor14 students. The Committee members have worked hard this year to ensure our club continues to be in a strong financial position and have enjoyed great support from the Program Officers and Outings Officers who have ensured that monthly outings and guest speakers have been varied, interesting and informative. A special thank you to our club members, many who quietly work behind the scenes at meetings and fund raisers, to give so generously of their time. Our members are very generous and always strongly support all our fund-raising activities – THANK YOU!

Our year began in FEBRUARY with a “get together” lunch at Freshwater Café and the first meeting for 2025 was held on 26th of February with 41 members attending. We posted a Facebook message of support to our sister VIEW Club members who were dealing with devastating floods in Qld and NSW.

In MARCH the outing was a visit to AQUA, a great opportunity for us to have a ‘child free’ visit to this fabulous marine attraction!! The wonderful guest speaker for this month was Alecia Benzie from the Kids Research Institute. There was a full agenda for the meeting and plans were made to celebrate 65TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY of VIEW Australia – a Sapphire celebration to acknowledge the fantastic voluntary work of VIEW members and The Smith Family.

APRIL saw members travel to the Swan Valley where we had a totally decadent time – a visit to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory followed by a delicious lunch at Pinelli Winery; don’t think anyone needed dinner that evening!! Susan Saleeba from Nukuru Homes in Kenya was a most inspiring and interesting guest speaker. At the meeting, members displayed their generosity with a huge amount of donations of toys, books and knee rugs for Roseworth Child and Parent Centre – literally filling Lynn’s car!! Thank you everyone for your donations. Our lucky number $50.00 note raffle is in full swing once again.

In MAY our Facebook page acknowledged National Volunteer Week, and the extreme difficulties caused by floods in parts of NSW, for VIEW members and families sponsored by TSF. The outing was a guided tour of the lovely grounds of UWA. Our guest speaker, Les Everett, covered a very unusual topic, “Abandoned Cricket Pitches in WA” – how quickly he grabbed our attention and held our interest!! Plans were discussed at the meeting for a big month in JUNE – ‘Trade Table’ fund raiser and celebration of VIEW Club 65th Anniversary.

JUNE got off to a great start - fine dining lunch at Bentley Pines (TAFE training restaurant for hospitality students). This was followed up with a fantastic June meeting – A. Sapphire Celebration of VIEW Clubs 65thAnniversary, when members came dressed in blue and POST Community newspaper photographer took a lovely photo which was published, along with an article, in the newspaper. A special Thank You to Judy and Carolyn who provided us with the beautiful birthday cake and to our guest Julie Walker, General Manager of TSF. Prior to this POST published an article, “View Clubs Raise $45 million for The Smith Family”. Articles were provided by our Publicity section. B. ”Trade Table” fund raiser which resulted in over $900.00; congratulations to WSVC members on this wonderful effort. A very busy, highly successful month!!

While JULY was a quieter month, and there was an outing to WA Art Gallery to see Year 12 students’ Pulse Exhibition. The monthly special guest speaker was retired Judge Denis Reynolds, former president of WA Children’s Court, who spoke very passionately and from the heart on the systemic problems of the youth detention structure and processes. During our meeting members were addressed by Rena from Bayswater Club and she spoke about the Resolutions and the voting process. Thanks to both speakers.

Special note of thanks to Jennifer who organised the sale of a number of bottles of El’s Olive Oil – a handy fund raiser.

In AUGUST our Outings and Program Officers, continued their great work – a guided tour of Herdsman Lake with our very own member, Pam, doing an excellent job as tour guide and the sun was shining to further enhance the outing.

The August meeting was rather special because ROS, who has been a member for 8 years, was acknowledged for her outstanding contribution to WSVC over that time. Her achievements were recognised when she was presented with a “Making A Difference” Award from VIEW Australia. Ros has been an excellent Treasurer and is a person who is so innovative and always has great ideas to help our club fund raise to support our 14 students. Congratulations Ros, well deserved recognition!!

The guest speaker prior to the meeting was Ambrose Depiazzi OAM, Chair of the Lions Eye Institute, who provided us with so much interesting information on the history and invaluable work of this organisation. The meeting produced another lucky winner of the $50.00 note. A special mention and THANKS to our morning tea ladies, Merelyn and Jake and to Peta for organising the book sales, a great little fund raiser activity! Well done ladies.

WSVC members would also like to acknowledge the ongoing support that the club has received from POST Community Newspaper, the publicity gained when the articles written are published in the newspaper, is greatly appreciated.

This month our Members indulged in a little bit of decadence and thoroughly enjoyed a lunch outing at a lovely café in the Floreat Forum. Several Members attended the Zone Councillor High Tea.

Another good turn up of Members attended September monthly meeting. Raelene again excelled and our guest speaker was Paralympic swimming gold medal winner Elizabeth Edmondson, who first won gold at Tokyo Paralympics in 1964 aged 14! At this meeting reminders of Fundraisers - Walkabout/Sitabout and card making in October; and Club 23rd birthday lunch in November. POST Newspaper published an article to promote the ‘Walkabout’.

Our President and Publicity Officer went to the office of POST Community Newspaper to present a Certificate of Appreciation to Emma and staff, on behalf of club members. Our local newspaper has published many articles written by our Publicity Officer, including 3 this year. The resulting publicity has raised community awareness of our work and gained us several new members.

An informative and interesting guided tour of Guildford Colonial Gaol & Museum followed by a lovely lunch had our club off to a great start to the month. The highlight for October was the very successful Walkabout/Sit-about’ fundraiser.   Perfect weather was enjoyed by all the participants and over $2300.00 was raised – a wonderful effort thanks to our Members and sponsors. Those who attended the Christmas card making session, thanks to Kerrie, recycled old cards to create new, unique ones!

We had 48 Members at the monthly meeting and we learned so much about the Australian film industry thanks to our speaker, Renee Kennedy who stated that the screen industry is “Not a career for the faint hearted”. The hard working Birthday Committee have organised a wonderful birthday lunch on 27th November, something very special to look forward to; reminder of AGM and Christmas morning tea December 11th.

A train trip to Fremantle was a very popular choice for quite a few Members who indulged in an outing with a difference – a tour of Republic of Fremantle Distillery, followed by lunch at Gage Roads on the waterfront.

23rd Birthday Lunch:   A total of 83 Members, guests and friends joined together in the fabulous birthday celebrations. A HUGE THANK YOU to the Birthday Committee who did an amazing job to organise this event and to set it all up so beautifully. They worked very closely with the venue, caterers and others who all helped to make this a wonderful occasion.

Accompanying photo shows a very pleasantly surprised Chris receive her Making a Difference Award 2024.  

AGM was run by Marlene who read the nominations (none from the floor), then thanked the outgoing Committee of 2024. The new Committee of 2025 were welcomed by Marlene who presented their badges. Reports for 2024 were provided and read by President and Treasurer.

The general meeting was then held, followed up with a delicious Christmas morning tea shared by Members. A WSVC Certificate of Appreciation was presented to outgoing Committee member, Raelene who for the past 10 years, has organised the monthly guest speakers – and what an amazing job she has done to provide our club members with such a wide variety of high-quality guest speakers – they have informed, entertained, challenged and engaged members over the years, congratulations and THANK YOU Raelene!

2024 has been a wonderful year and it is time to thank the outgoing Committee members for all their work in keeping our club running smoothly and efficiently as it has grown and increased membership and the number of sponsored students and also provided funds for extra learning programs. Thank you so much to our loyal, hardworking club members who are there helping out in so many ways. WSVC is very proud of its contribution to the invaluable work of The Smith Family.

The May outing was a relaxing lunch at a beach side café enabling members to chat while enjoying stunning Indian Ocean views!

Members promoted National Volunteer Week (May 20th- 27th) – Something for Everyone on our Facebook page.

Four of our members had a wonderful time when they joined in with 7th birthday celebrations for Capes VIEW Club – a photo of our happy ladies was popped onto our Facebook page!

May monthly meeting was the club’s amazing Trade Table fund raiser, as can be seen in the accompanying photo – a fantastic effort and a lot of hard work by members but what an end result …. around $1,082.37 was raised. Congratulations and well-done Members!  Also at this meeting two new Members, Mary and Pat were presented with their club badges; Kari gave an update on 3 of our Learning for Life students and Committee Reports were presented.

THANK YOU to Raelene who did the organising and to those members who were able to attend the fashion parade fund raiser held at Blue Illusion Floreat.

A lot of action during April which began with a club outing, Perth CBD Guided Tour – Convicts and Colonials; a very informative tour that included history of the buildings and the connections linking the Whadjuk-Noongar people and the convicts (male only} who arrived in 1850’s.

We had an article published in POST about a simple fund-raising activity our club organised to get people to donate 5c and 10cpieces and other coins not needed. The article was titled FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW and told of two Seniors who have become regular donors to this small project and with their help our club has raised over $3,000.00 in small change in the past 2+ years. To follow-up our president, as a gesture of thanks from Members, presented a Certificate of Appreciation to each of the two Seniors; one of whom is 95 years old!!

As a direct result of the POST article an older Claremont lady contacted our club as she had some coins she had collected and wanted to donate these to us – when our Treasurer visited the lady she was presented with almost $400.00!! Thank you to all those who have contributed to this little fund raiser.

April monthly meeting was a great success, attendance was 44 including 3 new members. The guest speaker was our local MP for the Federal seat of Curtin, Kate Chaney, who was not only an excellent speaker but was very generous with her time, answering questions and mixing with our members foe a considerable length of time. Raelene, who organises the speaker program seems to have a knack in finding excellent guests. Two new members, Trish and Sandra were presented with their club badges.  A number of topics were covered at the meeting – Joy Spreader Program, TSF publication Real People Real Stories, fund raising ideas and Committee Reports.