Five organisations have been awarded $1000 grants through the People of Post program thanks to nominations from Seymour-based Australia Post staff.
The program encourages Australia Post employees to nominate groups based on their own personal connection to a local organisation.
In Seymour, this resulted in Gnarly Neighbours, Seymour VRI Bowling Club, Lions Club of Seymour Goulburn and 1st Seymour Scouts Group receiving grants. The Broadford and District Historical Society was also successfully nominated.
Seymour Mail Centre manager Paul Burke was incredibly pleased by his team members’ support of the local community.
“I’m very proud to be the manager and to have so many people put in for them (community groups) and then get grants for them,” Mr Burke said.
“Australia Post prides itself on being community involved ... we’re proud to give back.
“Because we’re a small community, they’re all part of the community and they want improvement. I’m very proud of them.”
Seymour VRI Bowling Club’s grant will help the club build a new ramp to improve wheelchair access to the bowling green.
Brad Anderson is the acting production line manager at the mail centre and a board member at the bowling club and he was thrilled with how the grant would support the club’s older members.
“Some of the older bowlers were probably thinking about giving up the game,” he said.
“But now they’ll have access to the greens and to the clubrooms through the wheelchair access and better facilities at the rooms.”
Seymour post office postal manager Dallas Stokes nominated Gnarly Neighbours and she was excited that the grant would support a two-part workshop on bowling pin design and street art.
“The money’s really going to be spent locally, so that’s where it’ll get the most benefits,” she said.
“We’re here to service the community ... and I think the post office especially is a bit of a community hub, so to be able to give money back to the community is just really nice.”
The Scouts will use their grant to purchase computer tablets and Sharon Hockley, who works at the mail office, was thrilled with how the tablets would support the group to run activities.
“They go camping, they go all over the place, and these little tablets they can take with them,” Ms Hockley said.
“They’ve got log books, now they can do it online. They don’ have to write.”
Administration manager Karen Straghan was successful in nominating the Broadford and District Historical Society for a grant and was grateful “to give something back” via her work.
The grant will be used to print new brochures and assist in bringing to life a graveyard walk program.
Ms Straghan said the society wanted to “put little markers on graves as part of a walk” in order for people to scan the codes for information on people’s contribution to the district.
“I’ve lived in Broadford for over 35 years now and to give something back via my work, Australia Post, is a really good feeling,” she said.
Since 2018, more than 1350 grants totalling more than $842,000 across Australia have been awarded through the program.