Westpac staff warm our hearts

Mission Australia wants to send a warm thank you to all the generous Westpac staff who donated clothes as part of the recent Winter Warmer Appeal.

Fifty wheelie bins’ worth of jumpers, jackets and other warm clothes were collected from six Westpac sites in the Sydney area - George Street, Martin Place, Market and Kent Street sites in the city as well as Concord and Parramatta to the west.

The team at Mission Australia’s Big Heart collection warehouse at Bellambi, NSW, is always in need of good-quality clothes to sell from its seven op shops in Shoalhaven, the Illawarra and Campbelltown. This year the need is even greater, given that much of the warehouse stock was destroyed by fire in March.

“We lost so much in the fire so we desperately need to restock,” said NSW Service Manager Social Enterprise Andrew Douglas. “At this time of year people traditionally give away their summer clothes, having donated winter garments around Christmas – but of course the need during the colder months is for warm jumpers and jackets that keep out the chill.

“If you have good-quality clothing in the back of the wardrobes that you never wear we’ll gratefully accept them to help people in need.”

Anyone in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven areas who would like to donate good-quality warm clothes can drop them off into a local Mission Australia Big Heart donation bin or at any of the seven stores.

Other ways to help this winter
You can also support Australians doing it tough by making a donation to Mission Australia’s Winter Appeal – if you act today you’ll still be able to make a tax deduction for the 2010-11 financial year.

Mission Australia has already raised more than $663,000 thanks to community generosity, but we still need you help to reach our $860,000 target this winter. Every dollar makes a difference to the lives of struggling families and individuals.

Another great way to support Mission Australia this winter is to host a Winter Sleepout event. Whether you get your workplace together for a small gathering and have a gold-coin donation or you throw the event of the year, every dollar counts.

Big Heart Bellambi bounces back!

Good news for op shoppers in the Illawarra. Mission Australia’s Big Heart store at 16 Bellambi Lane, Bellambi, is back in action!

Today’s re-opening signals a major turning point for the store since it was damaged in a devastating fire in March of this year.

As well as being the site of Mission Australia’s Soft Landing mattress recycling social enterprise, the Bellambi Big Heart retail store acts as a sorting and distribution depot for the six other Big Heart stores in the region as well as a bulk sales outlet.

As a result of the fire, much of the Big Heart stock as well as the mattresses were either destroyed by fire, smoke or water damage caused by sprinklers triggered during the blaze.

This necessitated a major drive for donations of goods suitable for sale at the Big Heart shops.

“We are so happy to finally re-open our doors,” Bill Dibley, NSW Operations Manager for Social Enterprise, said.

“The local community have been extremely supportive and our volunteer team have been unbelievable in cleaning up after the fire.”

“I thank them all for their comment and dedication.”

Clothing sold from Bellambi outlet is still only $7 a kilo, shoes $2 a pair and books can be purchased 5 for $2.

As ever, the Mission Australia is calling out for volunteers at all of its Big Heart sites in the Illawarra region – Warilla, Dapto, Wollongong or Thirroul – or even the Nowra and Campbelltown outlets. According to Mr Dibley, there are several volunteering opportunities available at some of the retail outlets including retail assistants, drivers, offsiders and sorters.

To find out more about volunteering opportunities, please call 1800 110 578 or email volunteering@missionaustralia.com.au.

Further reading

• ‘Big Heart rises from the ashes’
• ‘Big Heart cleans up after weekend fire’
• Soft Landing - a Mission Australia social business working towards sustainability
• Find the location of the Belambi store at the Google map below.
  

View Larger Map

Big Heart cleans up after weekend fire

Forty staff members and volunteers at Mission Australia’s Big Heart Enterprise centre in Bellambi, in the Illawarra, are taking part in a large-scale clean-up following Sunday morning’s arson attack.

The Bellambi site houses a warehouse, opportunity shop and the Soft Landing mattress recycling program, which strips old mattresses of recyclable parts such as metal, foam and timber.

The 4,000 square metre warehouse also stores thousands of items of clothing that supply seven Big Heart opportunity shops in the Illawarra and south-western Sydney.

The fire, which began when a stack of mattress frames caught alight around 4.30am on Sunday, triggered the internal fire system. While this helped to extinguish the fire, it also flooded most of the factory.

“Without the internal system we probably would have lost the full factory,” said Mission Australia’s Social Enterprise Operations Manager Bill Dibley.

Given the damage, the warehouse is currently not able to receive donated items.

Mr Dibley estimated that up to 200,000 items of clothing and 1,300 mattresses sustained smoke and water damage, complicating the usual recycling process.

“We’re now working hard to separate the foam that has melted into the springs,” said Mr Dilbey. “And because of the fire the process is taking about three times longer than usual.”

He added that his team spent the whole day on site on Sunday, taking five truckloads of burnt rubbish to the tip and cleaning the building in order to resume normal operations and fulfil contracts.

Police believe the blaze was deliberately lit and are examining CCTV footage captured at the store.