The Launch of Team Delta
It’s been a wild journey as one of Orange Sky’s Co-Founders since 2014. I’ve survived many a broken-down washing machine, watched our services grow and develop, and helped lead us through a pandemic. We’re now sharpening our focus and direction to look to the future as we strive to deliver on our mission to positively connect more people.
In September 2020 after a whirlwind year, we launched our five-year strategy to our internal team. This was co-developed with the Senior Leadership Team and Board’s vision to ‘help more people, with more resilient revenue streams whilst still finding ways to innovate and support the community.’ We’re currently helping 13,300 people and set a new goal to help 40,000 people experiencing homelessness by 2025.
One of the themes to come out of the strategy development was how innovation runs through everything we do. It has, and always should be part of our DNA. From building our very first van ‘Sudsy’, to upgrading our laundry vans to include shower capability, to our work in remote communities and the launch of Volaby – we are constantly looking for ways to innovate and help more people in our community.
When Nic and I first started Orange Sky, we had no idea about budgets, impact or scalability, but we sure are thankful that we gave it a go anyway. Six and a half years after our very first wash, we’re launching an exciting initiative that will support that very idea of ‘giving things a crack’. Team Delta – meaning an alternative form of change – is about leaning into our capacity to innovate and giving things a go that have potential to make a difference. With strong and simple principles, vision and methodology, we are excited to discover the next positive connection that we can make.
As part of this change, I am excited to share that I will be stepping into the role of CEO, while Nic will be moving to the newly created position of Chief Delta Officer (CDO), leading Orange Sky’s innovation stream and enabling new projects to be developed and delivered to support more people doing it tough.
This does not change our mission to positively connect communities; it means we will be working hard to find more efficient and innovative ways to grow and connect with our community.
The team has already delivered some great wins to help more people doing it tough, including a focused sprint on how we can start new shifts more effectively, connecting our data sources to ensure we’re using data to better inform our decision making, and – just last week – the launch of our remote venture visiting 20 communities across South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland.
My belief is that everyone at Orange Sky can be an innovator from our team at HQ, to our volunteers, friends and supporters. Ideas can come from anywhere; for us, the key to moving forward is how to take it from an idea into action and give it the time and space to grow and mature to drive impact. I am excited to have Nic more focused on this to help us as organisation into the future and we can’t wait to share with you the developments that we’re making.
If you have any thoughts, questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Meet the next generation of innovators at Orange Sky
Work and Life Lessons from a (Really) Tired Mum
Reflecting on the last twelve months, I find myself in an entirely different world, and not just because of the pandemic. Like so many others, I spend my days juggling work, home, study and trying to find time for myself.
In January 2020, I welcomed my beautiful daughter, Faye, into the world. I was never sure I wanted children of my own. I was focused on my career, and I couldn’t see how I would manage both. Yet, here I was as a first time mum and loving every second.
As a relatively young organisation, Faye was the first Orange Sky employee baby. Ironically, in a stand-alone HR role, I was responsible for developing the Parental Leave Policy. I love my job and I was excited, albeit nervous, to return to work after five months of parental leave. I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by the most incredible team of people – a team who inspires each other to bring their best every day. I’d kept in touch throughout my leave, and had agreed with my manager to come back part time at four days a week. I arranged daycare, labelled all my daughter’s clothes and was ready to return to work. Easy, right?
Not easy.
Like so many women before me, I found those first few months back at work to be the hardest of my life. The ‘mum guilt’ for leaving my five-month old baby in daycare was crippling. I found a new burst of ambition and found myself laser focused on being a strong female role model for my daughter, but I was exhausted and convinced I had to prove to everyone around me that I could still be a high-performing professional. I felt like I’d lost my identity.
I’m still not sure I have all the answers, but here’re a few lessons I’ve learnt along the way….
Jess is pictured on the right with colleague and work wife, Chelsea.
1. Set your boundaries.
I’ve always resented the concept of work-life balance. My mind conjured up an image of a seesaw where the only way to balance work and life was to only give a portion of yourself to each, and I saw that as a bad thing. Turns out, it’s not so bad.
Setting clear boundaries has been so important for me. Things like switching off notifications after work or being offered the flexibility to work from home have helped me bring the best version of myself – whether that be as a mum or an employee.
2. Find your girl gang. Or any gang, really. Find your people.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and well… it does. Building your network of family, friends and supportive work colleagues takes time, but it’s okay to ask for help and advice. I’ve found an incredible connection with colleagues at Orange Sky who have tiny humans of their own, and sometimes a five minute chat about the woes of a teething baby is just what I need.
3. Be kind to yourself.
You don’t have to do it all. You can say no to that social event in favour of staying home, and you can ask for flexibility. There is always time to achieve your goals – but ask yourself if the time is right for you.
Learning to say ‘no’ and ‘not now’ has given me balance, and made me a far better mum and colleague.
I’m still new at juggling the responsibilities of parenthood and professional life, but I know society still has a way to go. Having a child and growing a family is one of the most natural things in the world, yet today, women are retiring with 47% less superannuation than men. The gender pay gap and women taking time out of the workforce due to caring responsibilities are cited as barriers to gender wealth equality.
So, I ask anyone who finds themselves working alongside parents – whether they be new parents returning to work or otherwise – to show a little kindness and empathy. There will be times we arrive to work frazzled from lack of sleep or with a spot of nappy cream on our shirts, but teams are stronger when we make space for everyone at the table. Building a culture of flexibility and inclusivity where all voices can be heard has never been so important.
Interested in hearing more from inspiring women at Orange Sky?
One Year On Since Pausing Our Shifts
Orange Sky’s Co-Founder, Lucas looks back on the past 12 months since the beginning of the pandemic – a time in our history that we’ll never forget.
There have been many days in this crazy Orange Sky journey that I will remember forever; some the happiest and others the most challenging of my life. Monday, March 23 is one of the latter.
That was the day we pressed pause on all of our metro and regional services across Australia and New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It almost felt surreal; five and a half years of building relationships and trust with our friends was seemingly undone by an invisible enemy in just a few short weeks.
Letting people down is something that Nic and I have always taken incredibly seriously. It’s what drove us to get our first ever laundry van, Sudsy up and running in just three days. It took two failed attempts before we were able to support our very first friend, Jordan.
(You can learn more about Jordan’s story here)
That same fear of letting people down has also fuelled our recovery in a COVID-19 world.
It’s hard to grapple with the idea of friends not being able to bring their washing to shift, volunteers not having a way to give their time, and supporters not being able to see their impact in the community. The second we paused shifts, we knew we needed to innovate and find ways to help our friends.
One year on, our service might not look the same as it did pre-COVID, but that unwavering commitment to support our community remains unchanged. From that very first shift back just two weeks after pausing our services, we’re now operating more than 200 shifts a week across Australia.
A few weeks ago, I was on shift in St Kilda, Melbourne – my first interstate visit since before the pandemic. As the sun set over St Kilda beach, I watched as our mission to positively connect communities was brought to life through many showers and loads of washing, conversations on our six orange chairs, and connection with our service provider partners. March 23 will go down as one of the toughest days in our history, but it’s moments like this on shift when I’m reminded of exactly why Orange Sky exists.
Everyone has their own story and experience of what the past 12 months have been like, and I wanted to share some of those with you today from our HQ team.
“Working in the not-for-profit space for the past 10 years and volunteering well beyond that, I have never experienced a year quite like the one we’ve just had. It’s amazing to think that 12 months ago to the day, we made the difficult decision to turn off the Orange Sky engines. In hindsight, that was the easy part. Getting the washing spinning once again was a challenge, and we couldn’t have done it without our many partners and dedicated volunteers. Words such as positivity, energy and resilience describe the approach led by our HQ and volunteer teams and I am so proud for us to come out the other end a much stronger organisation.” – Dan, Program Manager (Friends and Volunteers)
“I’ve never been challenged more than I have in the past 12 months. It’s been a year since I’ve left Perth, and I usually travel quite a lot, so it’s been interesting in that respect. In the community impact space, as horrible as the past year has been for so many, it’s been an interesting time as we’ve made a lot of new relationships that have resulted in better collaborations and shift locations.” – Lisa (Program Manager, Community Impact)
“2020 was by all accounts, a very different year for many people mostly due to the pandemic. While our metro and regional services were affected by restrictions, our remote services were able to continue operating right throughout the year. Thankfully, our three communities remained COVID-free and our employees were able to continue operating laundry shifts and supporting the local community with very important social connection.” – Judith, Program Manager (Remote and Indigenous Services)
“When COVID-19 first hit our shores, we were very uncertain about the impact the pandemic would have on our ability to raise the funds required to keep our vans on the road and supporting our friends. Our incredible donors, and corporate and philanthropic partners responded so generously, with many reaching out to us to offer assistance. It’s thanks to our community that we were able to get back out on the road so quickly to support our friends doing it tough.” – Michaela, Grants and Individual Giving Manager
International Women's Day at Orange Sky
I’m lucky enough to be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) here at Orange Sky. I am incredibly passionate about supporting women in their careers and navigating the obstacles that will inevitably be thrown their ways – ranging from gender bias through to Mums returning to the workplace and learning how to balance family and work; all experiences I’ve had in my career.
We are moving to a very exciting time in history where the world now ‘expects’ equity, diversity and inclusion. The world notices its absence and celebrates its presence.
It’s Inclusion Month here at Orange Sky, which encompasses many things; diversity of race, gender, ethnicity, religion and ability. This week, in line with International Women’s Day (IWD), we’re focusing specifically on gender. The the theme for IWD 2021 is #ChoosetoChallenge, which is about creating a more inclusive world by celebrating women’s achievements and calling out gender inequality.
As a society, we’ve got a long way to go to in addressing inequality on a number of levels. Here in Australia:
– There’s a gender pay gap of 13.4%;
– Of the 25 CEOs who were appointed to ASX200 companies in 2020, only one was a woman; and
– 90% of all board members are of Anglo Saxon descent.
There’s a strong case for change, and a big part of creating this wave of change is through sharing knowledge, celebrating success and lifting others up.
As part of our #IWD2021 event at Orange Sky HQ, we were lucky enough to hear from four amazing women who are doing incredible things in their own different ways. It was an empowering conversation covering how they’ve chosen to challenge gender norms in their work and personal lives, career obstacles and the role of both female and male mentors in their lives.
We asked each of them why it’s important to celebrate women, and here’s what they had to say…
Lyndi Hawkings-Guy | Senior Lawyer, Legal Aid QLD
“When I thought about this question, I always go straight to the gender equality timeline and all the amazing achievements like voting rights and reproductive freedom – there’s just so much in there. And I thought, that’s why we have to celebrate, because men still have such immense power and social capital in our society that we have to claw back all of those rights that men take for granted. That’s why I think it’s so important to celebrate every year what we’ve achieved.”
Kym Rae | Associate Professor & Mater Foundation Researcher
“As part of our research work, we had a donor come to us a few years back. She said ‘I really want to understand what happens between women when they get into motherhood; do they stop learning or do they choose engage back in learning again? I’d really like to understand this for Indigenous women who often have families earlier in life or are living in remote Indigenous communities. Is there a point in a woman’s life where they can pick up education again?’
We did this work in a number of communities across NSW, and it was absolutely incredible to listen to these beautiful Indigenous women of all ages, from 16 right through to Elders in the community, and hear the deep tragedies that their communities had suffered over the years. To hear kids in high school say ‘well there are no Aboriginal role models. In my town, there’s nobody who has a job that I would want or is a boss. Why would would I go to university? It’s not going to change anything. I still want to stay or come back on country, and there’s no jobs here for someone like me.’
These women had no career aspirations, because they had never seen it in their communities. And so I think for us as women, we need to be celebrating women every single day – one, for the privilege that we have had to be educated, but also to be role models for the women who haven’t had that privilege.”
Peta Irvine | CEO, Local Government Managers Australia
“We are all so busy. We’re doing a million things, and we don’t actually stop and say ‘hey wow, I’ve just moved on from whatever this is’ – it might be a task, it might be a job, it might be a life stage – and say, ‘I’ve done this, congratulations, and pat myself on the back.’ We just move on to the next thing, and I think women are probably more guilty of this than men. So that celebration is a reflection point and a gratitude point, and a pat on the back for yourself that we actually sometimes need.”
Chenoa Master | Diamond Spirit and Inclusion Lead at Netball QLD
“It comes down to the belief that, ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women feel that they have to choose between having culture at home on country, or going out alone to chase a career. Similarly, women in the workplace feel a pull between having a family and pursuing their careers. We shouldn’t have to choose; we should be championing womens’ successes to build them up.
My manager and I spoke recently about the late Sir Ken Robinson and a video that came out to honour him; it speaks about your ‘what if’.
What if the world was perfect?
What if we lived in a world that was free from bias and we all felt like we belonged?
Imagine if we celebrated women, how many more women would we have in careers, workplaces and positions of influence to share knowledge – what would our society look like?”
Want to read more stories from inspiring women at Orange Sky?
Ghana & Jane
I have been volunteering for Orange Sky at Cairns Villas for nine months and have absolutely loved connecting with our fantastic friends on the orange chairs each week.
There are two friends in particular that our Saturday team of volunteers have become very close to; Jane, 73 and Ghana, 31. The pair have been coming to Orange Sky to do their washing and enjoy conversation since the commencement of operations at Cairns Villas.
Despite living in close proximity to each other, Jane and Ghana had not made a connection prior to Orange Sky’s arrival at their location. So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived at shift one Saturday morning to have Jane and Ghana tell me that they are in fact related! Their joy was palpable and of course I couldn’t wait to hear their tale.
The story begins with a visit from Ghana’s Uncle Torres, who had travelled from Darwin to Cairns to attend a family funeral. Whilst he was visiting Ghana and her family, Torres mentioned that his brother and sister in law lived nearby and he wanted to visit them while he was in Cairns.
What transpired after her Uncle’s visit was a series of ‘sliding door’ type events that led Ghana to form the belief that her Uncle Torres might also be Jane’s brother in law.
The very next Orange Sky shift, with the suspicion that they might be connected through family, Ghana sat down next to Jane on our orange chairs and asked if she knew someone named Torres Momoa. Jane responded in the affirmative, that Torres was her brother-in-law of 40 years. Ghana then explained that Torres was also her Uncle, meaning that she and Jane were family.
To say that Jane and her husband Ted were elated to discover unknown relatives right on their doorstep is the understatement of the year. They said; “We’re able to add a niece, a nephew (Ghana and her husband) and another 7 ‘grandchildren’ (their kids) to the family.”
The relationship between Jane and Ghana has continued to blossom, growing in love and respect each week. It has been a privilege for our Saturday morning team to have played a small part in witnessing the development of this amazing connection. It reinforces the power of what can be achieved by bringing communities together on the orange chairs and we are all richer for the experience.
I consider it an honour to be an Orange Sky volunteer and know with experiences such as these that I receive far more than I give.
If you’ve got a story to share from shift, we’d love to hear from you!
Five years of conversations on our six orange chairs
There’s not many people who have been at Orange Sky longer than Maryam Clarkson.
She started volunteering in Melbourne back in July 2015 and has managed the entire service – consisting of two laundry and one shower van – since 2017. With more than 250 volunteers in Melbourne, Maryam has looked after one of our busiest services across the country in her role as Service Leader (which, by the way, is completely voluntary). From scoping out new shifts and doing risk assessments, to rostering volunteers and running our Orangetation (‘orientation’) training, there’s not a lot she hasn’t done in her time with Orange Sky.
Maryam has decided to hang up her Orange Sky shirt and take a bit of a break from volunteering after five and a half years of service to her community. She chatted with us about her Orange Sky journey and some of the lessons she’s taken away from her time spent sitting down on orange chairs.
“At the start of 2015, my youngest child entered primary school. I gave myself a couple of months to recuperate, after having three kids at home for so long, then I started looking for something to do. It so happened to be the time when Nic and Lucas were heading down to Melbourne to start Orange Sky.
I had previously volunteered at the primary school my kids were attending. I thought volunteering was an integral part of a community’s survival. There is so much unpaid work that occurs behind the scene and is not often acknowledged.
My first shift was in July 2015. It was at St Mary’s in Fitzroy on a Monday morning and I was a weekly volunteer to begin with. There were a lot of people wanting to volunteer and not many friends, but the service eventually picked up and we saw the same characters come back again and again.
Early on in my Orange Sky experience, I met a woman at the Batman Park shift. Our conversation started off like most others, but it soon turned to her letting me know that she had just miscarried. Only a week earlier. I was dumb struck, not knowing what to say to her. There was no fixing that moment. I would often tell this story [at Orangetations] that sometimes it is just good to be with someone on shift and not try to ‘fix’ things for people.
I had been volunteering for a year when the opportunity came up to be the ‘Appbassador’ – a job where I had to visit every shift, roll out the tablet in each van and show volunteers how to use it (Orange Sky tablets are used to track the journey to and from shift, to capture wash and shower numbers, and measure conversation hours). I went to Brisbane for the Volunteer Summit that year in 2016 and met all the other state leaders.
Then an opportunity came up for the Service Leader role and I thought that I would give that a go. I did fear that I may not be able to do it, but I wanted to stretch myself. I am so glad I did. Man, have I learnt a lot, grown a lot and really loved the role. It has been really tough at times with having to deal with difficult situations, but we got through and learnt from these. I have loved working with and supporting all the volunteers to enjoy their experience helping others.
I will miss feeling the importance of my role and the interactions with volunteers. Getting that good feeling when you’re on shift helping people and knowing that what I was doing was making a real difference in people’s lives. I will miss the connections with all the people I have met over the five and a half years; from the staff at HQ, to my fellow volunteers and especially the friends I met out on shift each week.
Conversations are so important. They make you feel connected, important and worthwhile. Email conversations; just don’t cut it. They lose the personal touch of a tone of voice, a smile and warmth. Everyone needs to connect to others. It is in our human DNA.”
Volunteers like Maryam, who give their time in support of the community, help to make Orange Sky a place where our friends feel welcome, connected and safe. We can’t thank Maryam enough for her contribution to our Melbourne service and wish her all the best for a well-deserved break.
Pictured below is Maryam’s final shift in Melbourne on December 25, 2020.
Interested in making a helping to make a difference like Maryam?
Advocating for inclusion on January 26
Orange sky recognises that January 26 is a day that causes many of Australia’s First Nations people a great deal of pain and hurt.
As an organisation that seeks to support the 23,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders experiencing homelessness, we advocate for celebrating on a date that is inclusive for all Australians.
We’re proud to be an Australian-founded organisation and we encourage the recognition of people from all walks of life who are doing great things in their backyard.
In line with our mission to positively connect communities, we want Orange Sky to be a place where everyone can feel welcome, supported and included.
As Orange Sky continues to provide our laundry service in remote communities, we remain committed to being a better ally for the First Nations people of this land. #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe
Learn more about Orange Sky’s services in remote communities.
What the past 12 months taught us about connection
The world has changed a lot in the last 12 months. For me personally, it’s been a reminder of how the important things in life, like human connection, can be taken away from us in a blink of an eye. But for our friends, that’s a reality every day.
I always get a little overwhelmed through such a poignant period like the holidays to make sure I form those really special connections in my own life. I feel very grateful that I have the opportunity to connect with my friends and family over this time, but what I’m always reminded of is that you don’t need a season or a special day to do that.
Conversations happen every day of the year on our six orange chairs, and we want to make sure we can continue that over the holidays by providing 1,400 shifts. What that means is over 1,400 opportunities for people from all walks of life to come together and connect. Whether that be an opportunity for a friend who might be doing it tough over the holidays to have a conversation, or a volunteer who is potentially lonely or isolated being able to connect with a friend; behind every one of those shifts is a really unique story and a really unique connection.
One of the toughest decisions we’ve had to make since starting Orange Sky was the decision to pause our shifts at the beginning of the pandemic. In our origin story, we talk about breaking a few sets of washing machines and letting our first ever friend, Jordan, down. Throughout 2020, there’s been people that Orange Sky hasn’t been able to help, and that’s been a really difficult thing for us to grapple with. We hope through our efforts and through our community, we can continue to show up and provide as many services as we can for people who need it.
What we’re looking at in the next couple of months is actually operating at a level higher than we were before COVID-19. That’s something that I’m really proud of. Being out on shift is really important to me, having conversations is really important to me and connecting with those amazing people who support Orange Sky is important to me.
Every day, I’m incredibly proud of the people who support Orange Sky – particularly our volunteers, who have put their own lives on hold this year to ensure that our friends have access to the services they need. From myself and from the whole team, we just want to say a massive thank you for continuing to show up over the holiday period and helping us deliver every one of those 1,400 shifts. We hope that at whatever point you have connected with Orange Sky, you know that your service has had a massive impact.
Last year, we could never have predicted or expected what has happened in the last 12 months. What gives me confidence is that the community has really rallied around each other during this time and found a way to get through it together. Although we’re still unsure what 2021 has in store for us, services like Orange Sky can hopefully make the world a better place.
Help Orange Sky provide 1,400 shifts these holidays by making a donation today.
Giving & Good Deeds with Biome
We know that certain times of the year, like the holiday period, can be harder than usual for our friends on the street. Someone looking to make those times a little easier is Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores. Tracey has worked extremely hard to empower people to make more earth-conscious choices. We sat down with her to find out why giving is important to her and how she connected with Orange Sky.
1. Tell us a little about the Biome story?
I launched Biome in 2003 as an online store to help people live with less waste, less toxins and to make choices that matched their values such as cruelty free and palm oil free. Biome was Australia’s first online eco lifestyle store, and one of the few in the wider-world.
Two years later we opened our first physical store in Paddington, Brisbane and now have four more stores located in Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, Balmoral, Gold Coast and Melbourne.
Biome has led the way for many years introducing and championing sustainable living. Biome was the first retailer in Australia to sell KeepCups and champion reusable water bottles, has never offered plastic shopping bags to customers, and recently, was the first Australian retailer to receive B Corp certification and the world’s first Palm Oil Investigations certified retailer for being 100% palm oil free.
The mission of Biome has always been to be part of the solution to the world’s environmental problems. Rather than despairing about what is going wrong in our world, we can all feel empowered and positive about the contribution we make to the planet each day.
2. Why is giving important to you?
Giving is one of the many reasons I started Biome. By giving to people less fortunate, you positively impact their lives and in doing so, you improve your own life by living in a way that is true to your values and ethical beliefs.
Having the power to improve the lives of others is a true privilege. Giving not only makes the world a better place, it also inspires others to give. We all can perpetuate the cycle of giving and by broadening our influence we extend our positive impact.
3. Tell us about 12 Days of Good Deeds and Good Deals?
12 Days of Good Deeds and Good Deals is a campaign we run every year at Christmas to highlight the importance of charitable giving during this time. This is a small way Biome gives back by promoting non-profit organisations whom we admire throughout the year.
For 12 days, we share with our community 12 charitable good deeds they can support. Each good deed is accompanied by a good deal from Biome.
Over the years we’ve supported many wonderful organisations including the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, QLD Koala Crusaders, Rainforest Rescue, Share the Dignity, Australian Conservation Foundation, WaterAid, The Orangutan Foundation and of course, Orange Sky.
4. Why did you choose Orange Sky as one of the 12 Days charities?
We chose to support Orange Sky as we not only admire their laundry and shower service, but more importantly, the community connection they provide for people in need. Christmas is a time for giving and we wanted to share with our community the opportunity to give back to someone who might not receive a gift or have a family to be with during this time. The gift of clean laundry, a warm shower and – most importantly – genuine conversation for $24 is an affordable gift that makes a big difference to someone in need.
We were honoured to be chosen as one of the 12 Days of Good Deeds and Good Deals charity partners. We love that Tracey uses her business to connect her customers to people in need. If you’d like to find out more about Biome, you can check them out here.
You can continue to grow Tracey’s gift on connection these holidays by supporting our friends with clean laundry, warm showers and genuine conversation.
Holidays, Connection & Our Six Orange Chairs
Every year as December rolls around, I always feel this really interesting dichotomy between what is going on in the world and what is happening on our orange chairs. On one hand, people are making plans, connecting with their families and looking ahead to the new year; then on the other side, there are service providers closing down for the holidays and friends who are disconnected from all of the things above.
Although Orange Sky is still in the rebound and rebuild phase after COVID-19, we’re about to break our record for the total number of shifts delivered in a month. This is a testament to our incredible volunteers and our amazing team leading this, however it also tells us that there’s more we can be doing in the communities we already operate in to support people doing it tough.
The holiday period is a time when more and more people want to volunteer and find ways to support their community, whereas for our friends, it’s sometimes an even more challenging time than normal. I think for some people, it can be a big reminder about the connection that they don’t have with their community or family, it isn’t always a celebration of having family and support around you; it can be a matter of just getting through the days.
What an orange chair represents for me, and I think for our volunteers and friends as well, is really a sense of normality. It’s a sense of when you’re sitting there, you’re having a yarn with someone, you’re talking to a volunteer, you’re talking to someone else who might be in a similar situation to where you are, but it’s a place of no judgment. It’s a place to just have a normal chat. So whether that’s Christmas Day, New Year’s day, or in the middle of June, it doesn’t really matter. I think what we all want is to be a part of something; to be part of a community and to have that sense of normality.
This will be the sixth year that some of my family and I have headed out on shift on Christmas Day. I have a relatively small immediate family and we don’t have massive get-togethers or anything like that, so it’s been really cool incorporating Orange Sky – which is such a big part of my life – as part of our holiday traditions.
Our Christmas Day shift will be one of the 1,000 that we hope to run over the holidays to support our friends, like Crystal, and lay the foundation for an even bigger 2021. $300,000 is the magic number, and thanks to support from the Flannery Foundation and another anonymous donor, any donations we receive from the community over the holidays will be matched dollar for dollar.
To all of our friends; I hope we can do our best to support you through this time and ensure an orange chair is there for a chat whenever you need it.
To all of our volunteers and team; a massive thanks for sticking with us (or joining us) in 2020. It’s been a challenging year, and I can’t wait for us to create an even greater impact together in 2021.
Finally, to our community, thank you for your help to make all of this happen. We’re so grateful for your support of our mission to positively connect communities, and if you’re able to make a donation these holidays, you’ll be providing double the impact for our friends doing it tough.
Can you help make sure an orange chair is there to support our friends these holidays?