2023 was a quiet but successful year for Twin Hearts, but it also presented many opportunities to learn and change and grow.
We began our year with our AGM and Planning Day held on Feb 5th at The Brown Hill Hotel, where we enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea and the company of our special guests John Maloney from Cops and Kids and Geoff Warner, friend of Twin Hearts INC. This was a day where we were able to celebrate the wins of the previous year, discuss the challenges and the hang overs from the previous covid years and make plans for the following year.
We were blessed to have our first event of 2023 land directly in our laps. I was contacted by Laura from Ivory Haus who asked us to be her Charity Partner for the March wedding fair. We spent the day at the beautiful Mercure, eating free food samples, meeting guests at the door, taking their donations and generally having fun. As a result of this wonderful event that was really no effort on our part other than turning up and looking pretty, Twin Hearts was able to raise $1152.00 which was later to be partially used for a donation to The One Humanity Shower Bus and some allocated to one of the amazing projects over at Girls not Brides in Tanzania.
Early on in 2023 we were sad to say good bye to our wonderful committee member Abbey. We would like to formally thank her for all that she did during her time on our committee.
We were then excited to announce our next event, our annual Trivia Day held at the Queens Head Hotel on May 6th. As always this event sold our very quickly and was attended by a fun crowd. This also coincided with the Kings coronation and so Chef Tim, Manager Paul and the team at The Queens Head Hotel created a wonderful English style high tea, which received wonderful feedback. Once again our host with the most was Allan Taylor and we wish to thank him formally for his contribution to the day. He really made the day special and we are very grateful for his support. This day raised over $1400, with $1000 going to Cops and Kids and $400 being allocated to Girls not Brides.
Following the trivia day we were sad to say goodbye to Mel, our Policy Officer. Mel was a very important part of our team and was essential in all of the work we did behind the scenes during covid when we couldn’t actively fundraise, to ensure that all of our policies and documents were up to scratch. I would like to personally thank Mel for all of her hard work both on this plus our social media, all while looking after a new born baby.
May also saw The Ballarat Courier do an in-depth profile on me, which was a weird but wonderful experience and was great exposure for Twin Hearts. I would like to thank them for the coverage.
In August our incredible Vice-President Kylie stepped up into the role of social media management and smashed it out of the park. With committee profiles, thank you posts for our sponsors and special event and birthday posts, our social media once again came alive. I wish to formally thank Kylie for her hard work and dedication to this, which not only took a load of my shoulders at a time in my life where my physical and mental health was at rock bottom, but it also earned her our Annual Moyo Mkubwa award for outstanding contribution by a committee member, voted unanimously by us all.
Our plans for a 2023 Family Fun Day were all but shattered when we realised it was virtually impossible to find a venue that ticked all of the boxes we required. This type of venue seems few and far between in Ballarat, but given that 2022 was such an enormous success, I would like to see this event tabled in some way, shape or form for 2024.
We then went on to our Bumper Christmas Raffle and incorporated this with something we had never done before – market stalls. We partnered with Ballarat Candle Co to create a signature Twin Hearts Inc candle, ginger bread from our friend Shelley at The Botanical House, lollies and chocolates; and face painting from our incredible committee member Tam. We were scheduled to appear at several markets in the area, however, due to severe weather, winds, rain and circumstances beyond our control, we only managed to attend 2.5 out of our scheduled events. But we managed to sell many candles, gingerbreads, lollies and chocolates and most importantly raffle tickets, and all in all I would call this a success with several learning points.
I wish to thank everyone here who secured donations, sold tickets, sat at market stalls or put their hand up to do so and eagerly watched the skies to see if it would all come to fruition. I would like to formally thank Flo, our treasurer for creating the You Me Who link to sell tickets and even managed to stay on top of emails and invoices whilst enjoying a well deserved getaway.
I would also like to thank all of the local businesses who contributed to raffles and prizes throughout 2023. I know that charitable fatigue is strong following the covid years, but it would be very difficult for us to continue to work we do without you.
We finished the year with a feature in The Road Magazine from Damascus college, which I was not aware of until my inbox was flooded with screenshots. I would like to thank them for their recognition off the hard work that Twin Hearts has done in the community.
We also attended a very last minute session of Musical Bingo at Hop Temple Ballarat which generated a great donation for us. We had a ball and we can’t wait to do it all again in 2024!
I would like to thank the following venues for their support of Twin Hearts as meeting venues and coffee and wine supply – The Brown Hill Hotel, The Queens Head Hotel and The Botanical House.
I would like to thank all of our outgoing 2023 committee, Jackie our tireless secretary, Flo our numbers guru, Kylie who just rocks the Vice Presidency, Max our assistant secretary, Craig our PR officer, Natalie, Vicky and Tam. I would also like to acknowledge outgoing members Tom and Heidi who left us before Christmas.
I would like to thank the following dedicated and passionate committee members who are leaving us this AGM, Tam who has given so much to us over the years and has always been a delight to have on board who leaves us to concentrate on her career changes, and Molly who leaves us to welcome her baby in July.
2024 brings us a clean slate. I am excited to work with our new committee, one filled with dedicated, passionate, reliable world changers who are all on the same page and with the goal to grow Twin Hearts and make a difference both locally and globally. I know we already have some cracking event ideas which I can’t wait to see come to life!
