Blanket plea

By Shaun Inguanzo
A BLANKET drive has been launched in Greater Dandenong to prevent the city’s poorest residents from living in the freezing cold this winter due to escalating rent and utilities prices.
People are reluctant to turn their heating on as they struggle to cope with inflated petrol, housing and utilities costs, the Springvale Benevolent Society says.
The society is this week launching a blanket drive, urging Greater Dandenong residents to donate clean blankets or travel rugs so that the city’s most disadvantaged residents will be able to keep warm this winter. Springvale Benevolent Society president Wes Eggleston said the society was inundated with emergency aid requests from families struggling to keep their heads above the water.
Mr Eggleston said newly-settled families, such as Sudanese refugees, were included in the mix, as rental prices soared in Greater Dandenong.
“I’ve camped out some nights when it has been cold, as a kid, and I understand how you can feel the cold at night. It can take a while to warm up, and people shouldn’t have to go home to a freezer. It could have adverse effects on their health,” Mr Eggleston said.
Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades, a volunteer with the Springvale Benevolent Society, said blankets were the most cost effective method of keeping warm. But she urged residents keen to donate that the blankets should be clean and usable.
“It’s very cold and the situation is now, we’re finding that people – including your normal families – can’t pay their bills because they are too high, and they haven’t got any money,” Cr Blades said.
“If you’ve got a little plug-in electric heater, then you may not use it because it is too expensive.
“That applies to one bedroom flats, or caravans, which are small and don’t necessarily have in-built gas heating.”
Meanwhile, Cr Blades has asked that residents donate items such as food to other aid agencies within the city to help relieve the workload on the volunteer-run benevolent society.
She said community aid groups such as Keysborough’s Church of Resurrection were running food drives that would receive any non-perishable food stuffs such as baked beans or tinned spaghetti.
Cr Blades urged residents to make one purchase per week, during their grocery shopping, and fill a bag with goods over a series of weeks, that could be donated to food drives across the city.