A new set of wheels with help from some friends

A new bus service transporting young adults with disabilities to and from Bendigo has taken pressure off local Inglewood families. The new service is up and running thanks to a $20,000 grant from the Inglewood and Districts Community Bank^® Branch that was used to purchase a 12-seater minibus with capacity to carry a wheelchair. Community volunteers, including the parents of young adults with disabilities who use the service, take turns to drive the bus to Bendigo five days a week.

The service is also available for other community uses, including taking the elderly confined to a wheelchair to their hospital out-patient treatment and kids for work experience. Since opening its doors in 2007, the Inglewood & Districts Community Bank^® Branch has returned more than $240,000 of profits to local community projects.

There’s a number of other communities hitting the road in a new set of wheels, thanks to branches in Pearcedale, Katherine and Coolalinga to name a few.

Sporting teams find a home

Sporting facilities in Strathfieldsaye were stretched to capacity with many junior sporting teams forced to play games outside Strathfieldsaye. So local community members, Bendigo Bank, Bendigo Community Telco and the City of Greater Bendigo worked together on a solution to provide new sporting facilities.

Bendigo Bank and Bendigo Community Telco developed a referral agreement that delivered income to the project when local residents signed up for their services. The community then used this income to attract state and federal funding. And in just four years, the Strathfieldsaye community built its very own multi-million dollar sporting facility.

In the swim

A group of branches in Melbourne’s Bayside region joined forces with state and local government and Berendale Secondary School to transform an existing pool into a community hydrotherapy pool. To gain dollar-for-dollar funding from the state government, Highett Community Bank^® Branch underwrote the project and set up a fundraising appeal through the Community Enterprise Foundation™.

Branches in the region donated $80,000 to the cause. Located at Berendale secondary school, the hydrotherapy pool caters for residents with disabilities and is also open to the general public.

Helping mums when they need it most

One of the area’s few remaining community hospitals, Sandringham Hospital plays an important role in providing health services to the residents of Melbourne’s bayside suburbs, with a particular focus on its younger citizens. In 2007, the hospital opened a six-cot special care nursery for premature babies that were too small or sick to go home after birth.

It meant that mums and dads didn’t have to travel into the heart of the city to spend time with their babies, giving them better access and more time to bond with their newborn. The hospital has now extended its nursery to include a special space for the siblings and extended family of premature babies. And all of this has been possible thanks to the Sandringham, Beaumaris, Highett, Parkdale and Mentone East Community Bank^® Branches and the Cheltenham branch of Bendigo Bank, who together contributed $50,000 to the project.

You can find these and more stories at www.bendigobank.com.au