On 29th April, RCG members had an external excursion to the Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) warehouse at 32-34 Lincoln Street in East Brunswick. About 20 members took the trek out to the RIMERN facility, to be hosted by Ros McMaster, the Warehouse Manager. RCG welcomed Brenan Rougder, a significant volunteer at RIMERN who our own RCG volunteers have had much interaction with during our monthly 2nd Monday work there. It was great to see him there. He joined us also at the Darebin RSL for dinner afterwards.
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RIMERN has twenty-two member clubs, including RCG, and provides recycled domestic household goods to welfare agency clients who have experienced homelessness, domestic violence, incarceration, refugee displacement and other crises. RIMERN receives community goods donations that are cleaned and power tested before they are re-purposed. Everything is provided free, from bedding, kitchen goods (plates and utensils, cooking equipment), TVs, laundry washers and dryers if they are in stock and delivered to twelve to fourteen clients every week. It requires a lot of co-ordination and is operated by a volunteer workforce. So with this in mind, Ros MacMaster, the Warehouse Manager, gave a concise description of RIMERN operations, as our members sipped a glass or two of RIMERN's Van Rouge products, and escorted us on a tour of the facility.Members were impressed with the scale of the operation, and the variety of the goods held. We hope that this
enthusiasm will get more RCG members to participate in the monthly “volunteer working bees.”
enthusiasm will get more RCG members to participate in the monthly “volunteer working bees.”After our visit to RIMERN facility, we all adjourned to the Darebin RSL for an evening of relaxed fellowship over dinner and refreshments. Overall, a very successful night which gave RCG members a new appreciation of the work of RIMERN and how members can contribute!
You can always assist RIMERN by donating goods according to their guidelines on https://www.rimern.org.au/rimern-home/donate/donate-goods/
Geoffrey Widmer
