Grapevine Term 3 2021 - Winter Issue No. 38

Download the PDF version of the Grapevine here

A Word from Lisa

I must say it has been a cold start to winter, although it hasn’t deterred you all from coming in to enjoy the programs we have here at the Neighbourhood House even though the last few weeks have been a bit up and down with COVID restrictions.

To keep up to date with the Hub’s restrictions you can find details on our website www.grovedalenh.org.au or Facebook.

Even with the restrictions in place, I was able to spend a lovely morning in Gellibrand which was organised by Neighbourhood Houses Barwon to visit Gellibrand Community House. We were greeted by Max and Kyla who took us on a tour of their town showcasing various points like the Hall, Community Garden with the gorgeous Fernery and the Gellibrand River monument (pictured) which has a lot of local cultural significance.

On a final note, I would like to introduce Fiona who has stepped into the admin role in the GNH Office who is proving to be a great asset. Fiona’s role is to help you with room bookings, front desk and email queries and all those lovely behind the scenes admin tasks.

Drop in, say hello and enjoy the space here at the Hub.

Meet our nominated Local Community Heroes who have gone above and beyond within the local community. We honoured these five amazing individuals by celebrating their work during Neighbourhood House Week 8th – 14th May.

Deirdre Moss

Deirdre (residing in Grovedale) has been volunteering with EdConnect Australia since 2016. Dierdre visits Mt Duneed Primary School and Geelong High School weekly to support students through a volunteer program. In the ‘Geelong Positive Engagement Programme’, Deirdre supports Year 9 Geelong High School students to learn about animal welfare, using her life experiences in an international animal welfare organisation. In Term 4 2020, Deirdre delivered her presentations to students via Zoom.

Deirdre assists at Mt Duneed Primary School for 2 hours every week, where she helps the teacher and reads to children. Despite COVID restrictions last year, which enabled our volunteers to work in schools, Deirdre went above and beyond to continue her involvement.

She recorded herself reading stories selected by teachers so these could be used during remote learning.

She also joined the online classrooms live via Zoom from within her home to continue reading to children.

Deirdre is the first person to offer support to local officers at EdConnect Australia, assisting with meetings, greeting new volunteers at events, and sharing her knowledge and skills with the organisation

Ted Thirlwell

Ted has been nominated in recognition of his long service volunteering with the City of Greater Geelong L2P Program.

Ted has been part of the L2P program since its inception in 2009, where as an employee of the City he wanted to support and establish the L2P program. He attended our first round of mentor training and has volunteered with L2P (with very few breaks) ever since.

While working with the City of Greater Geelong, Ted would give up one of his lunch breaks each week to take a young person driving to help them gain 120 hours of supervised driving.

He has assisted 15 learners in varying capacities over the 12 years, four of whom received their licence as a result.

Like so many volunteers, Ted has gone above and beyond in his role, always offering to help the program in any way he can.

Ted has fitted L2P cars with external “L” plate brackets, that he custom makes from his own work shed. He has been doing this for numerous years, saving both time and money.

We are incredibly grateful for his help and his many years of volunteering with the program.

Nick Uppil

Nick is a volunteer with Empower Pantry food relief centre in Grovedale. Outside of his voluntary role at Empower, Nick is a business owner, dedicated husband, friend to many, and father of 3. Nick volunteers 3 days a week at Empower, managing food collection and distribution to community members experiencing food insecurity.

For people experiencing hardship, Nick provides a judgment free, welcoming community service, and is genuinely happy to see people each week. He is a wonderful role model to his children and friendship group.

Nick’s voluntary work has inspired him to return to study, where he is now completing a counselling degree to expand his ability to support others.

Jan Tonkin

Jan has volunteered many, many hours to community service over the years to look after and train Customs dogs.

These dogs go on to become Police and Border Force dogs, which keep our communities and country safe.

Jan has been doing this important service for over 10 years and has had over 15 dogs during that time in her care.

Jan has walked every dog almost every day for at least an hour at a time, and sometimes with multiple dogs in her care this could be up to three hours of walking a day.

Jan is an amazing person who deserves to be recognised.

Erin Krusic-Golub

Erin took over as President of the Grovedale Toy Library in 2020. Erin has done an amazing job and a huge amount of work to pivot the running of the toy library, so families could gain access to the library’s toys in a COVID safe way.

Erin always goes above and beyond and has an innate passion and drive to make her community a better place. Having access to toys last year during the long lock down was an absolute blessing and life saver, which gave normality to children and families during an otherwise challenging and difficult year. Erin is a well-deserving recipient to be celebrated.

What’s on Term 3 2021

For the new program, visit the program page of our website

or download the PDF version here.

TERM 3 DATES 2021

15 July to 20 September.

NAIDOC WEEK: HEAL COUNTRY

NAIDOC 2021 invites the nation to embrace First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia’s national heritage and equally respect the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders as they do the cultures and values of all Australians. Visist https://www.naidoc.org.au/ for more information.

Support the events run by the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative

Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative “Skate & Paint”
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - 09:00 to 14:00
Cost of entry: Free
Geelong Waterfront Skate Park
Click here for more information.

Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative Movie Day
Thursday, July 8, 2021 - 11:00 to 13:30
Cosr of entry: Free (must book)
Email: comms@wathaurong.org.au

Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative Heal Country Walk/Run
Balyang Sanctuary, Newtown
Saturday, July 10, 2021 - 09:00 to 14:00
Cost of entry: Free for mob/ $20 for allies.
Email: comms@wathaurong.org.au

New Indigenous toy collections at the Grovedale Toy Library

We are excited to share with the local community these additions of our Indigenous toy collection, purchased using the Ashbury Community Fund Grant received in 2020.

We have had these toys on display in our toy library window in recognition of Reconciliation Week and the upcoming NAIDOC Week and are excited for members to be able to borrow them soon.

We all have a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.

This is our small way of contributing to this and we look forward to continuing to build our collection and connections in the future.

Please have a look at our display as you walk past and spread the word about our wonderful toy library.

Whether you are a parent looking for ways to entertain and educate your children, or a grandparent or regular carer wanting to keep up with ever changing toy needs, we have you covered.

We are open every Saturday during the school term from 9.30am-11.30am at the Grovedale Community Hub.

If you are interested in finding out more or joining, please visit our website at: www.grovedaletoylibrary.org.au.

panoramic view of Grovedale houses from Waurn Ponds

Grovedale – do you know how the name came about?

Grovedale was originally named “Germantown” which arose from several families of Lutheran German origin who arrived at Corio Bay in 1849.

However, with the start of the First World War and a German submarine sinking the RMS Lusitania in May 1915, it was decided a name change was needed. On the 31st May 1915, a meeting which drew a large crowd voted to submit a recommendation to the South Barwon Shire Council that Germantown should be changed to either Cornwall or Marlborough. Other names to be submitted were Dennys, Devon and Grovedale.

The attending council on the 2nd July 1915 chose Cornwall to replace the name Germantown.

This name was later rejected by the Victorian Lands Department and the Commonwealth Postmaster-General’s Department because the name Cornwall was used already for another suburb in Australia.

As a result, the attending council then agreed to submit the names of Grovedale or Bridges. History shows that the name Grovedale was selected.

Grovedale being the name of Alexander Pennell’s 76 hectare property just south of Waurn Ponds, which he had acquired in 1847.

Next edition we will look at how the suburb started.

Ukes’n’more: Playing in harmony

Imagine, for a moment, an alternative universe where the global leaders attending the G7 Summit got together and played ukulele at the start of each day.

Imagine the leaders joyfully jumping around singing and playing uke classics such as You Are My Sunshine, or Over the Rainbow. Then, and only then, they would get down to the business of leadership and co-operation, and dare I say it….harmony?

Ukes’n’more commenced here at Grovedale Neighbourhood House in 2016, with about 9 participants.

From that humble beginning Ukes’n’more has gone from strength to strength, and in 2019 it was not uncommon to have 70 people attending - singing, playing forgetting their troubles and making new friends along the way.

In fact, Ross estimates that over 500 or so people have learnt to play, or refined their uke playing, in the weekly meetings over the past 5 years.

The group gave back to the community by playing regular gigs in nursing homes across the Geelong region.

When COVID really hit home in March 2020 the Ukes’n’more team (Ross, Vicki, Ian, Dave, Darren & Graeme) quickly rallied to see how they could possibly continue Ukes ‘n’ more sessions, and they tested the waters with two YouTube livestreams from the Grovedale Neighbourhood House in March 2020.

Spurred on by this success, when the full lockdown hit the Geelong region the Ukes’n’more team investigated a ‘new’ product that was making lots of noise: ‘Zoom’.

This product allowed participants to see a small image of everyone else participating, and the sense of community increased.

However, given the limitation of the Zoom product and the NBN, it was not possible to ‘play’ together. Viewers had to go on mute and play and sing along with the broadcast.

After a few songs we would ‘open the lines’ for people to wave and say hello. A minor thing, but people loved connecting with each other, even in that small way, especially given that our regular contacts with others during that period were so few and far between.

At the end of each session, we stayed on to chat to whoever felt like taking about…nothing and everything!!

To help people feel connected we invited our members to “Stay Home and Sway!”, where members filmed themselves playing their uke part to a backing track of the classic ‘Sway’.

We had some great contributions - uke players, bass players, drummers, percussionists, dancers and more! The video turned out really well, and I think that all Ukes’n’more members are proud of what we achieved. It’s a piece that remains for us to look today and reminds us of that time. After all, it’s human nature to look back and remember the good bits! (search for ‘Ukes n more sway’ in YouTube)

During October’s Seniors Month Ukes ’n’ more reached out again to the Geelong Seniors community with a series of four themed strum-along nights - Elvis, Hits of the 60s, The Doris Day Era and Slim Dusty. Since the band members were not even permitted to visit each other’s homes at that time Ian, Vicki and Ross recorded backing tracks that were presented each week to the Ukes’n’more audience. Each backing track was recorded separately in parts and then mixed to form the song. The full song was then beamed out as part of the Ukes’n’more session, with members free to strum and sing along to their hearts content.

Come 2021 Ukes ’n’ more started to meet in-person again, albeit with masks and social distancing presenting lots of challenges. However, as history shows, this newfound freedom was soon interrupted, and we again had to dust off the Zoom manual.

The Ukes ’n’ more Leaders team have worked hard to keep Ukes ’n’ more running during these Covid times.

As a reward, many Ukes ’n’ more members have expressed their ongoing and heartfelt thanks for what Ukes ’n’ more has provided to them: Friendship, community, laughter, fun, singing, ukuleles… and a pressure relief valve!

So, Scott Morrison, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin et al…are you up for it? This could be what you are looking for. Ukes’n’more meets at 7:30pm each Wednesday (during school term) at the Grovedale Neighbourhood House. Everybody is welcome!

The Ukes’n’more team would like to acknowledge City of Greater Geelong and Grovedale Neighbourhood House staff for their help and support. You can find out more about Ukes ‘n’ more at www.ukesnmore.com, or search for them in Facebook and YouTube.

A Message from the Lions Club of Grovedale/Waurn Ponds

The Lions Club of Grovedale Waurn Ponds, as one your local volunteer service organisations, is always interested in hearing from local people with a little time to spare who may wish to join us.

We are locals, just like you, who enjoy helping out where we can and enjoying the support of others in volunteer endeavours as part of a global organisation.

Our current drive is the Lions Club of Grovedale/Waurn Ponds Annual Community Raffle. At $2 a ticket you have a chance to pick up one of 13 great prizes.

Great interest has been shown in the official signed Cats football guernsey which is one of the prizes.

Many local organisations are involved in selling tickets. The beauty is that, for them, every cent they make on ticket sales goes back to them for their organisation.

That’s a WIN all round!

You can contact the below numbers if you would like a ticket or three!!

For membership enquiries call either our club membership chairman, Mark Grey or Secretary David Ridley.

We’d love to have a chat with you about Lions Club membership. No obligation!

Mark Grey – Membership – 0428 557 564

David Ridley – Secretary – 0459 574 347

Keen to volunteer in a brand new Op Shop?

Uniting Barwon needs motivated, reliable volunteers to join our passionate team of volunteers at our soon to be opened Op Shop in Pakington Street Geelong West.

Uniting Barwon (formerly UnitingCare Geelong) is an emergency relief agency providing assistance to individuals and families in our local community who need practical support during times of financial and personal struggle.

We need more volunteers to join the retail teams based at our Op Shops in Point Lonsdale, Drysdale, East Geelong, Hamlyn Heights, Corio, Norlane and Highton, and our welfare teams in Grovedale, Norlane and Winchelsea.

Our current vacancies include:

retail roles at our 7 Op Shops (customer service, merchandising etc.)

receptionists (organising client appointments)

food distribution (assisting our clients)

pickups and deliveries (van crew member or driver)

grounds and maintenance (mowing, weeding, cleaning etc.)

interviewers (assisting our clients)

sorting of donations (clothing and bric a brac etc.)

assisting with our monthly book sale (sorting and selling books)

admin, finance, microfinance and business related roles.

If you or someone you know would enjoy being part of a can-do volunteer team, even for a few hours a week, please contact Elizabeth Hopkin on 4210 1113 or email Elizabeth.Hopkin@vt.uniting.org.

Support vulnerable people in the community and help make a difference. Volunteer appointments are subject to satisfactory criminal history checks, reference checks and Working with Children Check prior to commencement.

Transition Mentor for EdConnect

Do you remember the time in your life when you started high school?

Moving from one school to another can be a really daunting time for young people. Would you like to mentor a student through this transition?

If so, read on – you can join EdConnect Australia as we look to mentor students in the Geelong region during this important time.

EdConnect Australia is recruiting and training volunteer Mentors who can give long-term to support students as they transition through their middle years of education, be this a transition to different schools (primary-secondary) or to different campus’s in a multi-campus school setting.

It can be one of the most vulnerable times in a student’s life and we wish to provide someone to “be there” to ease the path forward for Geelong students, providing strong social and educational support.

You need to be able to;

- Provide one on one, one hour a week social and emotional support to a student until at least September 2022

- Build a trusting relationship with the student, helping them to build confidence, self-esteem and resilience.

EdConnect has supported volunteers who are keen to develop positive intergenerational relationships with students in school settings for over 20 years.

EdConnect also takes on volunteers who offer one-on-one mentoring to students in need of assistance in the classroom with subjects such as numeracy, reading, science or help around the school in garden projects, breakfast club, gardening, library and much more.

Through the generous support of Give Where You Live and their Pitch Up programme, and key supporters The Anthony Costa Foundation and GForce Employment Solutions and the Erdi Foundation EdConnect is introducing Transition Mentors to support local students.

We encourage anyone with a passion for supporting young people and the desire to make a positive impact in a student’s life to email edconnect@edconnect.org.au to find out more information or to start an application.

Grovedale East Ladies Probus Club

The Ladies Probus Club of Grovedale East meets of the 4th Monday of every month at 10am in the Uniting Church Hall, corner of Torquay Road and Reserve Road Grovedale.

For further information please call

Pam Nichols 0418 522 346

Grovedale Waurn Ponds Rotary Club

By Gary Clark

Well, it's been quite a while since we communicated with our community. We like many other clubs were closed down by Covid-19.

Our meeting place Rice Village did become a no-go zone. We did however run a weekly meeting via Zoom. So, all our faces were across our computer or laptop screens and we raised our hands to talk.

Many of our meetings were catch up and others were for a formal meeting. It was great when we were able to resume normal face to face meetings but, now we are once again banned from Rice Village until restrictions are lifted.

We are still wanting more new members. We have welcomed some new members and they have fitted in really well.

We have extended our area into the Armstrong Creek communities. Anybody from that surrounding area is most welcome to join us.

If you have moved to this area and have previously been a member of a Rotary you are welcome to transfer to our club.

If you do not have the time to join us, we would be happy for you to join us in a club project or activity? Become a friend of Rotary? Also, if you have a project you would like us to consider, please contact us. Contact details below.

We have also been able to resume our fund raiser in Bunnings Barbeques where we sell sausages and drinks with the profits going back into the charities that we support. During Covid the BBQ's were banned and so our help to the communities was curtailed. Our Barbeques at Bunnings are a lot of fun encompassing great team work and fellowship.

Before Covid struck we did complete a great task. One of our members tragically lost his son who early in life had a fatal heart attack. His lovely widow had a rear fence in disrepair. Our club banded together demolished and carted away the old fence and replaced it with a new fence. All completed in one day's work.

We have also helped in performing mock interviews for the students at Belmont High. The students were given the task of applying for a job and we then interviewed them with relevant questions.

These students now have some experience in interview technique to hold them steady when they are applying for mainly casual jobs while at school.

We normally conduct similar mock interviews at Grovedale Secondary College and Geelong Lutheran College at Armstrong Creek but covid 19 has also restrained this activity.

So, if you feel inclined to join our club, to have a lot of fun and great fellowship please contact myself Gary Clark on 0418593767 or David Carlyle on 0409343250 and you will be made most welcome.

Butter Chicken

A quick and one pot Australian favourite from our North Indian friends. Best served with rice or flat breads on a cold winter night! Yum!

SERVES 5-6

PREP TIME | 15 MINUTES

COOKING TIME | 30 MINUTES

NOTE

Authentic versions would say marinade the chicken in yoghurt, ginger, garlic and spices overnight (or two hours at least).

If you have time, grill the chicken instead of frying to get that charred look and flavour.

If no one is allergic to nuts, you can add ground cashews to thicken the sauce in the end.

If you intend the freeze this dish, don’t add in the cream.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons oil (vegetable or olive oil)

2 tablespoons ghee/butter

800g chicken (breast or thigh) cut into bite-size pieces

1 large onion, chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, minced

1 tablespoon ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

400 g crushed tomatoes

1 tsp ground coriander

11/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp garam masala

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 cup thickened cream or yoghurt

1 1/4 salt (or to taste)

1 tablespoon sugar

coriander leaves

yoghurt

METHOD

1. In a large skillet or pot, heat ¼ the oil and a ¼ of the butter or ghee over medium-high heat. Fry the chicken in 2-3 batches to avoid overcrowding. Fry until browned. Set aside.

2. Heat butter or ghee in the same pan. Fry the onions until golden and transluscent, about 7 minutes.

3. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for a minute or two, then add the ground spices and cook for a further minute.

4. Add crushed tomatoes, chili powder and salt to the mixture and cook for another minute.

3. Return chicken to the pan and add in the yoghurt or cream. Simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken has cooked through. Taste and add salt to taste.

4. Garnish with coriander leaves and extra yoghurt. Enjoy!

Want your own family recipe to be featured next? Email us at info@grovedalenh.org.au.

Advertise with us

We accept advertising for the online version of the Grapevine. Please contact info@grovedalenh.org.au or phone us at (03) 5241 5717.

Enjoy the many ways to read the Grapevine:

Email: Subscribe to our email list. Please enter your details via this link.

Website: Visit our website at www.grovedalenh.org.au/grapevine.

Read it on MailChimp: https://bit.ly/3vHlyEA