Crafting some Christmas cheer with AnglicareSA Step aside, North Pole – the Toy Boys from the Rotary Club of Charles Sturt Grange brought Santa’s workshop to life once again. This amazing group of skilled craftspeople work tirelessly all year, every year to create hand-crafted wooden toys for children at Christmas The Toy Boys made an impressive 522 toys, which they donated to nine different charities, including AnglicareSA for our toy drive. We have a long-standing relationship with Toy Boys and are grateful for their continued support in helping keep the magic of Christmas alive for so many families.
Rotary Club of Charles Sturt Grange donated more than 500 handmade toys
The art of expression As a teenager, Abbey would rush to the Davoren Park shopping centre every Saturday with her sister and mum, eager to join the art program Pom Pom run by Carclew and funded by AnglicareSA’s Communities for Children Playford.
“It’s a great full circle moment of doing my dream job and pursuing something I am passionate about and then seeing all these kids at Pom Pom and being able to tell them I was once one of them,” Abbey said. Pom Pom is a contemporary art space where young artists aged up to 12 years can drop in and create their next masterpiece. Every workshop is run by a different artist from Carclew, like Abbey, who teach the children about a different creative practice, such as drawing, painting, collage, ceramics, and jewellery making. Abbey said growing up in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, there were challenges and few opportunities for her to explore her creativity, which made Pom Pom all the more appealing to her. She now is a multidisciplinary visual artist who primarily works with installation, sculpture, and video, with her personal background living in social housing fuelling her artistic practice. AnglicareSA’s Communities for Children program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.
Abbey is a multidisciplinary visual artist
“My sister and I were both artistic kids, so we would be able to come to Pom Pom and spend time together with mum,” Abbey said. “It was a free activity for us to do that we could afford. It was the highlight of my week.” Now, a decade later, the budding artist has returned to that same program – not as a participant, but as a practitioner.
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