This festive season, a Hallam factory is feverishly filling thousands of Christmas stockings that will be sitting under lounge-room trees across the country.
Waverley Social Enterprises, across its Notting Hill and Hallam sites, employs 400 people with disabilities.
The lead-up to Christmas is always busy for its workforce, who have packed a mind-boggling 1.5 million items between September-November this year.
Among the goodies are nearly 12,000 Fyna Foods Party Packs and Christmas stockings with labels printed, bags chock-filled with lollies and stapled.
Another job is 4000 Mattel toy towers filled with toys, wrapped and shipped off to shops.
Also assembled are Barbie and Hot Wheels cardboard display stands for big retailers.
“It’s a massive effort and our supported employees have absolutely delivered,” chief executive Nick Williamson said.
“What makes this period special isn’t the scale of the work, it’s what sits behind it.
“Every box packed represents meaningful employment, confidence and independence for people with disabilities.”
Among the proud workers are Dandenong couple Vicki and Andrew Robbins, who have been with Waverley for 27 years.
“I like them all,” Vicki says about her Christmas jobs list.
As well as working together, the husband and wife are world-beaters at bocce.
They have won a handful of gold (Vicki three, Andrew two) for Australia in World Games in Greece, China, Germany and United Arab Emirates.
Waverley gets behind them and seven other high-achieving colleagues who have competed in Special Olympics at sports such as basketball and bowls.
The secret to bocce is “a lot of good fortune”, Andrew says.
“It’s a very unpredictable game. Things can change at any second. It’s very exciting.”
