Wow!, Really? Are you sure? Us? Really? Wow! Where do we start?
Sometimes in life, you are thrown a curve ball, sometimes the curve ball delivers lemons, other times it delivers something so life-changing that there seems no appropriate response; no right words to capture the significance of the event. In November 2020, this happened to us at Gellibrand. We had just drafted our 3-year strategic plan, so many goals, 90 plus was the last count. The Committee of Management was starting to process how we would achieve all the goals set and make sure we had the capital expenditure to achieve the grand plans we set. Then along came that curve ball. Amazing. One of the goals was to secure a holiday house, a grand plan indeed, a huge investment, but one we felt worth making for the clients of Gellibrand and the wider disability sector. We thought it would be something we might achieve in the 3rd year of our plan. We were wrong. We had Mary Burbidge on our side. Mary had purchased a holiday home for Gellibrand. Yes, you read that correctly, a holiday house for Gellibrand.
Mary Burbidge, instrumental in the beginnings of Gellibrand as a service, way back in the 70’s, has served for 20-plus years as a member of our Committee of Management, mother of a person with a disability, and all around community-minded person. Gellibrand is a better and stronger organisation for having had Mary’s long-term support. Mary sent us an email letting us know she had bought a house in Port Arlington for Gellibrand, for the clients. There were no words that were enough, thank you did not seem to cover it sufficiently, but we definitely started with thank you.
Mary’s generosity is beyond words and beyond measure and we hope the enjoyment Burbeach House will bring to Clients will be thanks enough for Mary’s amazing generosity. We have worked hard with Mary over the last few months to do some renovations on Burbeach House and we are so excited that it is now being enjoyed by Clients. A big thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make the house ready and we can’t wait for it to be used regularly. Stay tuned for an update on when it will be ready for AirBnB bookings, we are close!
Till then we hope you enjoy some of the photos we have taken so far.
