Rachel Abdy (left) and Tracy Egyud areencouraging people to create Bags of Hopefor disadvantaged families in the Gawlerarea for Christmas and hope others willbe inspired to do the same in their owncommunities. PHOTO: Jesse Neill
JESSE NEILL
GAWLER’S Hope Chapel has teamed up with LifeInABagSA to create a Bag of Hope initiative for 2019.
One of the founders of Life In A Bag Tracy Egyud said that they wanted to do something different to support the Gawler community as the initiative enters its fourth year.
“We wanted to have a local rather than state-wide focus and show people how easy it is to hopefully replicate in their own community as well,” she said.
“I’m also involved with the Hope Chapel and this year we’ve teamed up with them which is why we’ve called it the ‘Bag of Hope’.
“We’ve made it a little different and were quite particular with what we wanted in the bag this year, including having an actual backpack rather than random items in a plastic bag.”
With an initial goal of 50 backpacks, Ms Egyud has been blown away by the community response to this project, as over 100 backpacks have been committed to the initiative.
One of the ways the backpacks will be distributed is with a meal from the Hope Chapel Food Truck at the ‘Hope@ChristmasCommunityMeal’ on December 20.
Co-ordinator of the Hope Chapel food truck Rachel Abdy said the event will be a free Christmas meal for families doing it tough.
“We’ve been setting up in Gawler West recently and cooking a meal for the community once a month for anybody that’s wanted to come along, hang out, have a meal and make some friends,” she
said.
“We decided to build on that and host a free community dinner with the food truck for those doing it tough during Christmas.
“We’ll be giving out the Bags of Hope at this dinner, so the event is intended for those that might be lonely, struggling or having a difficult time and haven’t got anywhere else to go this Christmas.”
The event will run from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and will take place at Hope Chapel on Cowan Street.
Those interested in helping out can buy the bags from Big W and can purchase several items each week to fill the bag.
Once completed, bags can be dropped off at various points around Gawler, including Tony Piccolo’s office, Gawler Council office, and Hope Chapel, as well as various locations around Adelaide.
Bags cost approximately $40 to put together and drop off points close December 1.
