Inside this

Issue:

AGM 2014 2

Art Show 2

Volunteer -

Sarah 2

Excursion to

Geelong 3

Vocational

Training 3

Student

Christmas Party 3

Volunteer

Thank You

Dinner 4

Term 4 Edition

Oct - Dec 2014

In Memory of Julie Roberts

Louise Multicultural Community Centre was saddened by the passing of Julie Roberts on Wednesday 5/11/2014. When Julie Roberts retired in 1983 from employment in the Education Department, she knew she wasn’t ready to give up teaching altogether. So when, in 1984, she was asked by Sister Miriam Boland (dec) to co-ordinate the English program at her newly opened centre, she was delighted to accept! She quickly began to realise that the job description of “English Coordinator” was almost peripheral to meeting the needs of the countless refugees. “English,” she said, was “caught on” not “taught” as their friends learned to trust them. Even more than teaching English, Julie appreciated the privilege of being regarded as a friend or surrogate mum and grandma to people who had been forced to flee their homelands and were making a new life in a strange new land. She became a Life Member of Louise in 2005 and retired from volunteering in 2012. Julie’s twenty-eight years of selfless commitment to countless migrants, refugees and participants at Louise was an inspiration. She was a much loved member of the LMCC family and she will be deeply missed. Our condolences go out her husband Reg, four children and ten grandchildren. - Sarah Price.

From the Committee of

Management and Staff

2014 has been an amazing year for LMCC! We celebrated LMCC’s 30th Anniversary at the Box Hill Town Hall amid State and Federal politicians, Councilors and other VIPs. We held our bi-annual Morning Tea dedicated to Bette Ellis (former volunteer tutor); Moon/Multicultural Festival; and had an excursion to Geelong which was sponsored by the Mission Op Shop who generously donated money to LMCC. LMCC took on some more challenges by hosting its first ever Art Show which was opened by our Patron, the Honorable Alistair Nicholson. In his speech, Alistair highlighted the immigrant background of all by indigenous Australians and the importance now that we continue to welcome new migrants into our country. He expressed his disappointment that Australia could no longer be proud of being a welcoming country to immigrants/refugees who are escaping traumatic situations. He emphasized the importance of the work of LMCC in providing a

welcoming place where people from over forty different countries can learn and socialise together. A big thank you to the previous Committee of Management for their effort and guidance. We would like to welcome the new Committee of Management and look forward to an exciting 2015.

As usual, LMCC cannot operate smoothly without the assistance and support from volunteers and tutors. Your time and effort is great-ly appreciated by LMCC staff all year round. We wish eve-ryone a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! Looking forward to conquering new projects in 2015!

President Julie Hawkey

Vice President

Anna Walker

Secretary Noel Stonehouse

Treasurer John Bonnyman

Geoff Harrison

Members

Leonie Burnham

Sandra McCarthy

Nilian Chen

Madeline Oldfield

Vijay Susarla

From the Office

L-R: Leonie, Noel, Madeline, Anna, Julie, Sandra, Nilian, John, Vijay, Geoff (absent)

AGM 2014 & Art Show

The 2014 AGM took place on the 22nd of October at Louise Multicultural Community Centre. My role this year was to take minutes during the meeting. President Ruth Lee welcomed everyone and in her report, thanked staff and volunteers for their work. She reflected on the 30th Anniversary celebrations and the sad passing of our founder, Sister Miri-am Boland. This being her last year as President, Ruth wished the Com-mittee of Management all the best for the future and hoped that they will continue to strive to fulfill Sr. Miriam’s objectives. Following that, Centre Manager Klaudia Lozo began her report by talking about the achievements for 2014 and thanking the Committee of Management, staff, volunteers and students for contributing to that success. She talked about the history of LMCC and Sister Miriam, and highlighted the success of 2013-2014’s major events, including the establishment of the LMCC Resource Library made possible by Rotary funding, 30th Anniversary, and outreach partnership with St. John’s Mitcham Parish. She also talked about the successful volunteer program which has successfully transitioned multiple volunteers into positions of paid employment. There was the election of four executive positions and six new ordinary members. Ruth Lee gave a speech honouring Sister Miriam Boland and talked about the development of a trust in her name. New President Julie Hawkey then presented Ruth with a certificate and flowers to acknowledge her six years of presidency and 12 years of service. The 2014 AGM was then declared closed and

everyone was invited to the Art Show and Soiree. - Sarah Price.

Art Show 2014

LMCC held its inaugural Art Show on 22nd October 2014 at Nations Foyer, Whitehorse Artspace, Box Hill Town Hall. Our Patron, The Hon. Alastair Nicholson opened our Art Show commenting on the quality and variety of the art pieces presented. There were approximately sixty guests attended the Soiree, where all our guests enjoyed some refreshments, accompanied by lovely live music by Judy Ho.

There were 27 submissions from artists with various backgrounds across Victoria. From painting on scarf to pressed flowers arranged as a peony. Each art piece demonstrated the uniqueness of the individual artist. Four paintings were sold during the exhibition. It was a memorable event! Thank you to all staff, volunteers and artists for their support. - Pauline Wong.

Term 4 Edition

AGM 2014

Volunteer - Sarah I began my volunteering at LMCC last year as part of my job seeker obligations. On the three days a week I’m at LMCC, I mainly man the reception and perform other administrative tasks as needed. I have also helped with various events, in particular the 30th Anniversary and con-tributed articles about these events for the newsletter. Early last term, I was inspired me to undertake a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Oth-er Languages) course which I’m currently doing online. I’m still an admin volunteer but in addition to that I‘m now also a relief tutor. I would like to thank Klaudia, Cindy and Neven for their continuing encouragement, support and warmth. What I’ve gained from being here goes beyond a few more skills to add to my C.V because it has also helped me regain some of the confidence and motivation I was lacking when I first started and that is worth more to me than anything. It’s very rare to find an organisation with the same level of appreciation and support of their volunteers as LMCC and I’m proud to be a part of it.

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Excursion to Geelong Term 4 Edition

Student Christmas Party

On Wednesday 29th October 2014, LMCC students, tutors and staff travelled to Geelong for the day. We arrived in Geelong, and picked up our Tour Guide, Colin Mockett. As we drove through the main roads of Geelong, Colin explained to us Geelong’s history. Our first stop for the day was the Geelong Waterfront at Eastern Beach. Many took their photos with the famous wooden sculptures and we also admired the views of the yachts, ocean and pier. Our second stop brought us to the Geelong Botanic Gardens. The Gardens featured stunning plants, flowers and greenery. Although we wished for some more time in the gardens we hopped back on the bus for our final destination, the Geelong Mural. The Geelong Mural proved to be a spectacular display! The history of Geelong is depicted through intricate mosaic picture art. The mural stands 32 metres long by 2 metres high on an entire wall of the State Government Building. The weather was on our side as we enjoyed our picnic lunches in the sunshine overlooking the waterfront and we enjoyed a great coffee at the local café. Our Geelong trip came to an end and we headed home to LMCC. Thank you to all who attended as it was a fantastic day and to the staff as well for organising our excursion! A very special thank you to Mission Op Shop for sponsoring this excursion! - Carly Fisher.

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We ended another fantastic year at LMCC with a student Christmas party where the LMCC community was given a chance to relax and enjoy the morning with a range of entertainment and delicious food.

The morning began with a performance from Hannah, who beautifully sang Si j’étais jardinier (If I Were A Gardener) composed by Cecile Chaminade, accompanied by Sharon. Following this, we were entertained by Dominic’s talent on the piano playing Princess Mononoke Theme Song by Joe Hisaishi.

Our long-standing tutor, Geoff, will be stepping down from his teaching role but will still be active in the Committee of Management of LMCC. As a token of appreciation and thank you, his class created a thoughtful performance that included a thank you song and readings of individual appreciation messages from each of his students.

The student Christmas party also paid tribute to our founder, Sister Miri-am Boland, as well as Julie Roberts with a beautifully presented slideshow acknowledging the fond memories of their achievements.

In honour of Julie Roberts and to celebrate Christmas, students, teachers and volunteers were invited to sing along to popular Christmas songs.

The morning ended with presents, courtesy of Yarra Water and delightful food for all. Thank you all and Happy Holidays from LMCC! - Chloe Chin.

Vocational Training LMCC would like to thank MC Consultancy for conducting a vocational workshop on Saturday 22nd November for our organisation volunteers. Under Michaela’s guidance, we learned more about ourselves (our skills and capabilities) and were given useful insight that will effectively guide us in our transition into the workforce. - Chloe Chin.

Volunteer Thank You Dinner

Suite 8, Town Hall Hub

27 Bank Street

Box Hill Vic 3128

Phone: 9285 4850 E-mail: louisemcc@aanet.com.au Web: www.louise.org.au Blog: www.louisemcc.blogspot.com

Important Dates

Last Day of Term 4: Friday 12 December 2014

First Day of Term 1: Monday 2 February 2015

LMCC set the task for Josephine Cardamone, Pauline Wong and Carly Fisher to organise our 2014 Volunteer Thank You Christmas Dinner. The team worked hard on many tasks to make the night shine. From organising gift donations, thank you presents, LMCC trivia, decorations and a surprise visitor, we can truly say the night was a shining success. De Fazio’s Restaurant in Blackburn was the place to be!! LMCC staff and valued volunteers indulged in a scrumptious 3 course meal of Italian Cuisine, while surrounded by smiles, laughter and Christmas cheer. After the main course, with chocolates to be won, LMCC Trivia was a hit! Excited chatter and smiles exploded into laughter and friendly banter when Santa popped in for a visit! With Santa’s help, the LMCC raffle was drawn and the lucky winners had a wonderful time collecting their gifts from the cozy (but slim) man in red while posing for a quick snapshot. Many thanks to the generosity of LMCC staff and volunteers (Carly Fisher, Josephine Cardamone, Mary Lee, Pauline Wong) as well as Mark from “Sweet As” and “Big W” for donating beautiful gifts that helped create our wonderful raffle prizes. A big thank you to Angelo Cardamone who was able to get in contact with Santa, and arrange for him to come all the way from the North Pole with his Elf Jo, to hand out the raffle prizes to LMCC’s lucky winners! Great food, fantastic company, many laughs & our very own visit from Santa. 4/12/2014 was a night to remember! - C. Fisher

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