To the people of the Geraldton community,

We are writing this letter to thank the community for the response to the break in at our Salvation Army facility just before Christmas. As many of you know, the Salvation Army Geraldton Corps experienced a break and enter on the 20th of December. When I arrived to check the alarm, I was confronted by a masked intruder wielding a crow bar who stole a large amount of the donated toys and food we were preparing to hand out at during the Christmas period to families in need around Geraldton. Aside from the theft, a significant amount of damage was done to our facility. The ongoing repairs have meant that the Salvation Army Geraldton Family Crisis centre has had to close until the damage is repaired. We apologise to the needy who would be looking to us for assistance in the coming weeks. We are working as hard as we can to get our facility up and running again so that we can be there for you in your time of need.

After the break in, the Geraldton Community rallied around us, with a constant stream of donations of food, toys and money coming in over the days following. It is due to these donations that we were able to maintain and indeed increase our assistance to needy families this Christmas.

We would like to thank all those who made donations, rang with offers of support and assistance, as well as the well-wishers who along with most members of the community voiced their sadness and disgust at this incident and those responsible. We would also like to thank particularly the following individuals and businesses who made significant contributions to our efforts, first amongst those being, Rigter’s IGA group for their $5000.00 donation.

They’re community spirit is wonderful and we are so grateful for their incredible support. We would also like to thank Mayor Shane Van Styn, MLCs Paul Brown and Darren West, Sun City Security, as well as all the members of the media who helped us publicise this incident. I would especially like to thank the team at Everything Geraldton who helped us get the word out almost straight away, and other members of the local media including Arthur Muhl at ABC Mid-West, Tasha Tania at GWN7 Regional, and the Geraldton Guardian newspaper. There are probably many more we have missed but to all those that brought donations in or those who made contact offering assistance and support, we are deeply appreciative of you and your efforts.

Our Christmas efforts this year were a success despite this incident. We were able to assist all those that presented for support at Christmas, and no child missed out this year. We are proud of the response from the Geraldton Community, and we pledge to continue, with the community’s ongoing support, to be there for those that are struggling in the Mid-West.

Blessings,

Lieutenants Jeff and Jacqui Milkins and the team at the Salvation Army Geraldton Corps