Deam Family Fund
Michael and Glenys Deam met in Hawthorn. Hawthorn had the Hawthorn Community Chest, which they gave to on a regular basis to assist in removing the many door knockers who continued to ask for money. It has a similar objective to the Geelong Community Foundation (local charity support) but there was no corpus being created — it was just money in and money out.
Michael and Glenys moved to Ballarat for 13 years as their kids grew up and completed schooling. Philanthropically, they selected a number of local projects, but they were more directly connected to them. At the end of 2010, they moved to Geelong.
On discussion with Adam Blennerhassett, their broker from JB Were, they mentioned the Hawthorn Community Chest story and Adam told them about the Geelong Community Foundation, where he was involved as an advisor at the time. After a meeting with Andrew Lawson, the Deam Family Fund was born.
They had attended a few presentations from the Geelong Community Foundation and had always been pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of causes in which it becomes involved. As with most things, you get out of it more than people realise, particularly if you attend a grant night and see/talk to people about the projects and what the gift from the Foundation means to them and their organisation.
Having a Named Fund does give you some focus to your giving and an ongoing interest in watching where the donation is invested to help the people of Geelong and its region. Donating to the Foundation since 2015 has given Michael and Glenys a wonderful insight into all the great work being done around the Geelong region.
Their message to anyone wanting to start a Fund is that it’s as important to keep donating to the Fund consistently as it was to start it in the first place. You will find that the consistent donation will enable a Fund to build up to a surprising sum much sooner and much larger than you imagined. But the first thing to do is to create that Fund if you’ve not already done so. Sadly, Glenys passed away in 2022.
![Last week our Program & Impact Manager Charlotte Walker visited our grant partner, the Geelong Arts Centre, who delivers ‘Time to Thrive’.
Time to Thrive provides movement and dance for mature aged movers aged 60+ and this new initiative was developed in response to the limited opportunities for older adults to participate in dance and movement in our community. There has been significant demand for the pilot 6-week program, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from current participants.
Upon arrival, the ‘Dancing for Dementia and Parkinsons’ group was in action and the group participants were so joyous, with endless smiles and active participation in the dance steps and exercises. The classes have fostered physical and mental health benefits alongside genuine connection and belonging for group members.
Pictured is the Active and Agile over 60’s class on Monday 2 December, 2024.
[Image credit: Peter Foster.]
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