TLC Volunteers Maitland Inc Website

Media Release - 31st May 2007 By Steven Bye

Love was in the air on Friday the 25th of May, as TLC Volunteers Maitland held their Volunteer Recognition Dinner at the East Maitland Golf Club. Just over 30 volunteers of the organisation were recognised for their years of service with such a worthwhile and caring organisation. The night was made possible by the generous sponsors of the evening; the major sponsor was The Heritage Motor Group. Others sponsors included of Hip Horray, as they donated the centre pieces, Harps and Hearts donated their musical talents and the room was kindly donated by East Maitland Golf and Leisure Club Special. Guests of the evening were the President of Palliative Care NSW, Mr. Peter Cleasby. Our Local State Member, Frank Terenzini, Mayor Peter Blackmore, and Christine Roach from the Cancer Council.

As part of Palliative Care Week President of Palliative Care NSW, Mr. Peter Cleasby, participated in the recognition ceremony, noting the growing importance of the role palliative care plays in modern healthcare, and the vital contribution played by dedicated volunteers. "Volunteers, such as those with TLC, who contribute to palliative care, are at the forefront of making a difference to the lives of people living with a terminal illness, and their families." he said.

Many Volunteers were recognised as having served with the service anywhere from 12 months to our longest serving volunteer Jenny Cridland, of 16 years. All were thanked and appreciated for the endless hours they had put into representing the service.

"Last year our volunteers contributed 2,272 hours to their community. Nearly 500 patients and their families were supported in the medical unit of the hospital alone".

"Our volunteer s have learnt to do such things as, use aromatherapy to help our clients relax if they are having a difficult day. They have also helped to pamper our carers during our care for carers' workshops." Chairperson Brooke Stephenson said.

TLC Volunteers Maitland will serve their community wherever their clients need them, whether that is in their own home, in a nursing home or in the local hospital and has been operating in the Maitland community since 1990.

Volunteers have made the following comments about the Recognition Dinner:

• "Thank you for an enjoyable night on Friday. It was lovely to catch up with so many people."
• "Thank you so much for the wonderful night we all had!!! Greg and I really enjoyed ourselves! I think it was really great for Greg to see first hand what goes into the Volunteer Carers Organisation and also to see that we were all a happy lot!"
• "The funniest thing was going home only to find that I had left my bag under the table (strange that I hadn't forgotten the bottle of Chardy!). I really wasn't too worried though - I told Greg not to worry as it was guarded by Angels.... TLC Angels!"

Anyway, Thank you again to all who made the night grand!

We are now organising our next grand adventure with a Celebrity Trivia Night to be held on 19th October

Media Release - 9th May 2007 by Steven Bye

TLC Volunteers Maitland Inc., formerly Respite Volunteers For Palliative Care in Maitland, is a service which has been running in our Maitland community since 1990. Our service is a nonprofit organisation which provides emotional, spiritual and practical support to clients and their carers who find themselves in the position of having a life limiting illness.

As part of Palliative Care Awareness Week, which runs from the 21st to the 27th of May, our Service is holding a Volunteer Recognition Dinner. This Dinner is to recognise the tireless work that our Volunteers give willingly to our community. Some of our volunteers have been working with our Service for over 15 years and it is our nearly 50 volunteers which have made our service what it is today.

Our Volunteer Recognition Dinner will finally give voice to the amazing work which our volunteers do within the community. It also will be the graduation of some of our volunteers which have just completed an additional Course, Past Caring - Life after Loss, which was made possible from funding which we received from the Cancer Council NSW. This is in addition to their initial 7 week training course. Topics Covered were: self care as a volunteer, heritage sensitivity, what is normal in grief and how to provide the most appropriate support to those grieving .

It is only through the generousity of two local businesses that this event has been made possible. Heritage Holden has played a major part in enabling us to truly honour our volunteers by supplying their dinner and Hip Hooray has kindly donated the table decorations for the evening.

If you would like more information on our next training course which begins in a few weeks please contact our office on 02 49392 169 or visit our website which has been kindly designed and maintained by Brash Design