Shine Bright bands together to give hands on support to flooding victims

The communities residing along Victoria’s Campaspe River, in towns such as Kyneton, Rochester, and Echuca have been severely affected by recent flooding. 

For those with young children, there are often competing challenges, like preparing sandbags or securing property, whilst also trying to provide adequate supervision and emotional support for children. 

In response to the challenges, the staff of the Echuca/Campaspe Shine Bright Kindergartens have banded together to support families during this time, providing families with a supervision option for younger children at no cost. 

Providing this service has given parents a much needed break, and allowed them to focus on sandbagging the town, knowing their children are safe and preoccupied with qualified educators.

“Our staff are amazing. The past two years have been extremely challenging for all early childhood professionals, with COVID-19 impacting daily activities. For them to give up their time, to provide families in flood affected areas respite, and the ability to therefore provide support to other members of the community shows to the extent our staff will go above and beyond in the community,” shared Suzi Sordan, CEO of Shine Bright.

Kindergarten teacher Melinda Simmons who was part of the education team providing respite commented: “The staff of the Campaspe Shine Bright kindergartens are a strong and inclusive group of people who value relationships, community and wellbeing. We want to provide the children of our community a safe place whilst their families battle to save homes, some of those who helped did so whilst their own homes were under threat. We are very proud to provide this support and we hope to continue to offer support in the coming weeks.”

Ms Sordan thanked the staff involved, saying “the benefits to families and the community have not gone unrecognised.”