2020

APCO Foundation Chairperson’s Report.

2020! What a year! We thought our Black Summer burning 18.5 million hectares, 3500 homes and the loss of 34 lives was horrific enough. 2020 had more in store for us however and the covid-19 virus has taken over 600 Australian lives and has impacted us all in so many ways.

We have been working to help those affected by the virus by giving out food packages. As of 30th June, we have delivered 336 Care packs to those in need. We have continued through the winter months and we have packed and delivered almost 800. We are working with Red frogs and Deakin to feed the international university students and with the Geelong Council and Feed Me Geelong to feed those affected by job loss and isolating due to covid-19. This has been an extremely successful and worthwhile project and I want to thank Juli Baldwin, and Andrew Augustine for the support they have shown to keep this project going. The APCO Kitchen, and North Geelong site have all been amazing and of course we could not have continued to do this without Support Office involvement.

Covid-19 has been detrimental to our income streams. Our corporate support, race day, Pure Wax money and probably our Wine Walk early in 2021 will not be there to add to our income. It is one of the reasons we have been so grateful that Ron, Peter and Robert have continued to support the foundation so we can continue to help those in the communities around us.

We raised $233,225.32 and we donated back $233,607.47. It is the first time we have donated all the money we have raised over the year. We always try to keep some back so we can be there for the community in a disaster. The bushfires were that disaster for us and coming silently behind it was covid-19. We had a successful financial year right up till Covid-19 crossed our borders and our first lockdown began in late March.

We had some board changes over the past year. Tom White and Jill Wood passed in their resignation letters in the last month. Jill Wood has been with us since 2013 and was with us in the early days when the foundation was a lot of work for those on the board. Jill’s contribution to the early days of the foundation will not be forgotten by us. We ran Race days and Wine walks with just the few board members we had, and we were always exhausted but extremely satisfied with the result of our hard work. Jill never complained and was always ready to give up her own time to support the foundation. Jill only missed two foundation meetings in 7 years and was committed to building the foundation to support those in need around us. Jill was a kind-hearted, generous and dedicated member of our board and she will be extremely missed.

Tom White joined us in 2016 and his contribution over the past 3 and a half years was significant. It would remiss of me not to mention his behind the scenes help with the justice department, our constitution and numerous other legal questions over the years. Toms gave us a unique and valuable insight into many issues over the years. On both a professional and a personal level, I am grateful for the time and expertise they gave the APCO Foundation and our board. I have been very lucky to get to know them. I thank Tom and Jill for your friendship and the opportunities I have had to learn from you both.

We welcome 3 new board members. Alicia Carroll from Coulter Roache bringing with her a whole set of skills and expertise that the board will find very valuable. Juli Baldwin who has always supported the foundation and was instrumental in getting the Care packs off the ground. Julie has always demonstrated an awareness of the needs in the communities around us and will bring lots of ideas with her. Lastly, Brendan Bilogrevic who is Fiona Rowan’s right- hand man at Support office will come on board to support Christine Healy in her financial role as Treasurer. We hope eventually to pass the role to Brendan who has lots of experience in this area and will be a great asset to the board with this knowledge.

Our Wine Walk was extremely successful, and we raised $79,939. It was a sold-out event of 700 people and we took over the streets of Geelong CBD. We had seven beautiful venues including Sailors’ Rest, Fishermen’s Pier, Shorts Place Social, the Geelong Boat House, Frankie’s, There There and the Geelong Library. Ticket holders were given the opportunity to visit each venue and enjoy complimentary tastings from 22 local producers alongside live entertainment from local musicians. We could not have raised this money without the support of our major sponsors Pure Wax and APCO.

All of the money raised in the 2020 wine walk was donated directly to four families who lost their homes in the bushfires, by giving them $20,000 dollars each so they could afford rent food and clothing in the short term. At that stage none of the families had received any money from all the other money raised all over Australia. Each of them was desperate because applying for the funding was very difficult and full of red tape that for some became impossible.

Our goals of 2019 took a Covid-19 hit as it has been difficult to achieve growth in this climate.

Our social media presence and our website

The Wine Walk social media was run by Circus Media and was fantastic! I believe it was why we were a sell out so early. They delivered a great social media program on Facebook and Instagram which certainly raised our profile. We are in the middle of improving and updating the APCO Foundation website with Christian Benci from Thoughtbox. We still need to improve our presence on social media with at least 3 posts a week in order to create the awareness we need for the foundation to grow.

To continue to build on our income streams

Andrew Augustine ran our first ‘Foundation February’. A month that promoted the foundation at site level with a raffle prize, highlighting the Apco oil and Chill water that donates 10c for every item sold and lots of other ideas that raised us over $3000. We expect to fine tune this next year and aim to double our money.

We are almost ready to add a donate button to our Facebook page which will link back to the APCO website.

We are still working with Support Office on customers being able to donate at the console by rounding up and also looking at getting the foundation logo on the reusable bags that are being supplied to stores by Support Office.

Build the awareness of the APCO Foundation throughout the community.

I believe that this goal is built on every year as we establish the foundation within our communities and follow up with generous donations to disasters like bushfires, Cottage by the Sea, Cop’s n Kids, families, projects and individuals that need a little kindness. The Geelong Wine Walk event, and our monthly door posters at each site, all contribute to the growing awareness of our foundation.

Race for a Reason did not run this year, but Andrew Augustine is determined to get an online zoom event running on the 1 st October. Andrew continually has the best interests of the foundation in the forefront of his campaigns and firmly believes that we can raise some money out of this event. It will be run by Croc Media and the races will be screened. We will have David Parkin, Shane Crawford and Ian cover and some great auction items. You can join us for $50 dollars with the chance to win a Penfolds Grange ran this year and even have your own breakaway zoom group.

Our goals after covid-19 will need to address the following

Our funding loss and to find ways to create new income streams.
Our social media presence and our website
Build the awareness of the APCO Foundation throughout the community by continuing to support those in need around us.

The Foundation Board donated this year to many causes. The full list is below.

Each retail operator was able to donate $3000 to a cause chosen by them. We have donated over 730,000 dollars to the community in the past years.

I say the same thing every year, because it is true… We could not do this without the Support Office and our retail partners valuing the work we do and giving us the financial support, we need.

A very special thanks goes to the board. It has been a tough year, even just learning how to stay connected by telephone calls and zoom meetings have had their challenges! They have continued to support the foundation and the communities around us with their generosity and kindness. While it was hard not being together, I have really appreciated the support and good will that this board brings to the foundation and to me. It is a privilege to work with all of you.

The next 12 months will hold a lot of challenges and with challenge comes change. The support of our board, Support office, our Retail partners and our corporate community will be vital to help us find our way through and to build a better and stronger foundation.

We are all together in the same storm, but we are all on different boats. The foundation is not on a super yacht, but I think we are on a safe and sturdy boat with a couple of motors and lots of diesel making our way slowly and steadily through the storm. The foundation is here to help those people in the communities around us whose boats have sprung leaks and whose motors are out of oil.

Let’s hope the engines keep going and we don’t have to get the paddles out over the coming months.

Stay safe and thank you all most kindly,