CHAPPY CHAT – April 2023
Come and say hi to Topsy the Turtle while dropping off your cans and bottles for recycling
Rainbow Beach Learning Community
March has flown by and it is the end of Term 1 already and what a great term we have had at the Learning Community.
One of the term’s highlights was a trip to the Hervey Bay Material Recycling Facility organised by Chloe from the Gympie Council, where we saw huge amounts of rubbish dumped by a never-ending stream of garbage trucks sorted into what can and can’t be recycled by the dedicated workers.
We were amazed to see how many non-recyclable items such as plastic bags full of bottles (the workers don’t have time to open them so they all go into landfill!), children’s car seats, polystyrene, and milk crates came flying off the conveyor belt! Recycling is good for the environment, the economy and the local community.
Our thanks go to the Council and Polley’s Coaches for helping us to educate future generations by allowing us to make the trip.
Our second event with the Gympie Homeschooling Community on 23 March focused on how we can help to care for the turtles that come ashore on our local beaches and what we can do to look after our oceans.
Guest speaker Jan Waters from TurtleCare Rainbow and Teewah enthralled her listeners with stories of adult turtles that have recently been rescued, brought back to health at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, and released. Local volunteers also work hard to save clutches of eggs including one on Teewah Beach that was moved 4 metres back up into the dunes, enabling 137 hatchlings to make it to the ocean.
Mo Riggs, our resident art tutor, updated us on the status of TurtleCare’s mascot Topsy created by the children of the Learning Community last year. Topsy is currently sitting proudly between two bottle and can recycling bins in a prominent position on the foreshore.
Funds raised from these bottles and cans, which are emptied on a regular basis by Learning Community families, will provide TurtleCare with funds to continue their vital work. Each child created their own turtle from recycled materials and families again had a wonderful time together on our beautiful beach in the afternoon.
Other guests who visited us through the term included Gabriella and her helpers from the Tin Can Bay CWA through their Country Kitchens program, and local artist Vicki Miles who helped our young people create their own emu or jellyfish masterpiece.
One of our parents Ziggy spent time brainstorming with the young people in preparation for the Sandcastle Competition that is happening on Wednesday 5 April on the beach north of the SLS tower.
Community Pantry
We now have a freezer situated at the Community Centre where we can store the large amount of items donated on a fortnightly basis by Woolworths Cooloola.
We are currently looking into ways that we can further support locals through the provision of frozen meals for those who are unwell or have just come home from hospital and have no food in the house. Details are still to be finalised and we will hopefully have an update in the next Chappy Chat.
Flyers with details of the dates that hampers are distributed each fortnight from the Community Centre foyer between 1pm and 2pm are available from Vinnies in the main street and the local doctor’s surgery.
If you would like to receive a hamper, which cost $10, or know of someone that you could bless with a helping hand, please send a message via the Rainbow Beach Community Pantry Facebook page or send a text to 0413 135 867 to be added to our list of clients.
We all remember the floods that devastated Gympie and Lismore last year. When devastating floods hit her hometown, it was yet another blow for Andrea* and her children. They lost everything due to the flood damage – Andrea’s family home was destroyed, and all their food and belongings were ruined.
As a young single mum, Andrea didn’t know how she would feed her children. Then Andrea received food relief at a local Foodbank Member Charity, where they provided cooked meals and delivered crisis hampers and frozen meals to the community (*this is a true story of hardship. Andrea’s name is changed to protect her identity).
“I’d lost everything, and I felt scared and afraid… I really thought I was going to die. I’ve gone hungry before in my life, so not being able to afford food for my family was very traumatising.” – Andrea
If you would like to support Australian families who are struggling, you can donate via the Foodbank website: www.foodbank.org.au – just $50 will provide food for a family of four for a week.
