Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown Local 2022 #4/25 - Trees & Art for Charity

 


It looks magical - the Hamilton Wesley Uniting Church ( Beaumont Street, Hamilton - an inner city suburb of Newcastle, NSW)  is home  to 14 Christmas Trees decorated by local community organisations. It is an opportunity for these charities to  bring joy to the community as well as promote the good work these organisations do. As the church is open to the public every day, it is also an opportunity for visitors to enjoy the trees, vote for their favourite and donate to the charity nominated. 

Last week I dropped by to have a look at the tree which my doll makers group decorated ( I'll show that one in another post).  However, I was happy to see a beautiful tree resplendent in gold and white, decorated in the style of a century ago celebrating the centenary of the Rotary Club of Newcastle. It is the oldest Rotary club and service club in this city and continues to do good work as do the other many other Rotary clubs in the area. Congratulations to the Rotarians not only on this stunning tree, but also on achieving 100 years of service to the community! 

Rotary Club of Newcastle Charity Tree 

As a contrast, there was a very contemporary tree nearby decorated with colourful paper planes. It represents an organisation called 'Little Wings" which I confess I didn't know about, so I  did some research .  Much needed support here in regional Australia where distance ca use such additional stress and unnecessary expense to a family already in distress. 

Little Wings: For any parent or guardian, discovering that your precious child has a life-threatening illness can be truly heartbreaking. It’s even harder when the waves of pain come with the emotional and financial strain of being away from your family and home, while your child braves treatment.. 

Litttle Wings is a non for profit organization providing sick children and their families, throughout regional NSW, with free ongoing flight and ground transport during the treatment process. At Little Wings, ‘Your Journey is Our Mission’ and Little Wings  are here to help you through the toughest situations, thanks to the hard work and generous support of our community of partners, volunteers and supporters . From Little Wings website 

Little Wings Charity Tree 

I will write more about some of the other trees in future posts, but in the meantime, if you are in the area, pay a visit - you are sure to catch the true spirit of Christmas here. 








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Countdown #25envelopes/9 : Holly

  9 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes : Holly . The Druids of ancient Britain believed holly leaves had great powers of fertility and longevity . Nowadays, Holly has become a symbol of a Christian Christmas. It is also said that the sharp holly represents the crown of thorns that Jesus wore, and the red berries the blood he shed, so it has quite a religious significance. Today’s envelope is a simple collage with paper and fabric. I couched (stitched) Holly ribbon and embroidered French knots for the berries. The Holly theme is inspired by one of my favourite Australian Christmas stamps, depicting an angel with holly leaf wings . Today, I was stitching the holly ribbon onto the envelope at the Wednesday group and had planned to glue on some paper berries but a friend convinced me that embroidered ones would look much better and I think she is right!

Christmas Firsts #18 : Where in the World?

Where in the world will FIRST  experience Christmas Day? Because of the time zones and daylight saving , the first places will be   Samoa,    Tonga  and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) . They   are the first places to welcome Christmas. New Zealand and Australia see in Christmas Day soon after,  while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States of America are among the last. These statistics are more often quoted in relation to New Year's Eve, but I think it seems appropriate that Christmas Island is one of the first to celebrate Christmas in the world.  Kiritimati,    or Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name "Kiritimati" is a respelling of the English word "Christmas" in the  Kiribati language   The island has the greatest land area of any  coral atoll  in the w...

#SeptTextileLove26 Day 4

 #septtextilelove  #stl26day4  … Story-telling … making ‘art dolls’ gives wonderful opportunities to tell stories … This matriarch’s story  is intertwined with the cicadas which form  part of the soft sculpture  and emphasises what appears to be a contradiction about nurturing life and inevitable death... Cicadas spend years underground as nymphs feeding on root sap, emerging en masse as winged adults for a few days, perhaps a week, to mate and lay eggs in tree branches, then die, leaving the eggs to hatch into new nymphs that burrow underground to restart the cycle.  The dormant underground phase of the cicada’s life can be from 2-17 years! In my interpretation, this forest matriarch offers a safe place for cicadas to lay eggs, only to cause their own demise … but the continuing life cycle is ensured.