Charity begins at home. Trees of Hope targets eight tons of Christmas kindness

Pictured, from left, The Shack crew members Adam Howard, Emma Kimball, Imogene, Dale and Donna Dowler and Aaron.

The goal is to hand out a remarkable eight tons of groceries for needy and homeless individuals and families for Christmas. 

They have collected a couple of tons in about a month so far, and the December 17 deadline is looming. But Trees of Hope charity drive organiser Imogene Dowler from The Shack Nambour says the traditional rush is yet to come as people become increasingly generous as Christmas approaches. 

“It’s going to be a wild ride from here to the December 17th cut-off date that’s for sure,” said Imogene.  “There’s still plenty of time to donate and the need is greater this year. More people and organisations are reaching out to us. 

“But we’re also finding people are more generous than usual. It’s been crazy and it’s been amazing how many people have given so far.

“Baringa School dropped off 1000 kilograms of food. Sunshine Coast Grammar School Helping Hands provided and packed 80 Back to School packs. Life Centre Church Caloundra have donated 150 kilograms. Heaps of churches and schools have helped. Nambour Christian College and Nambour State College have been wonderful. We’ve picked up about 150 kgs of hampers from Heritage Branches and the trees have only fairly recently gone up in the branches.”

Imogene said The Shack was careful to work with other organisations to determine true need. “So we try to coordinate with organisations like Suncoast Care and with initiatives like the Salvation Army’s ‘Adopt a Family’ to try and make sure we’re not overlapping and, more importantly, trying to  make sure no-one slips through the gaps.”

 To take part all you have to do is collect Trees of Hope hamper bags or boxes from Coast Heritage branches, Mitre 10 stores or from The Shack. Then fill them with the items indicated on the list provided and drop them back to the Heritage Bank branches across the Coast, Sunshine Mitre 10 stores or The Shack in Price Street Nambour for collection. You have until December 17 to take part.