The Portarlington Golf Club is about to help seven separate Bellarine organisations bring their community-driven goals to life.
The club is delighted to announce that $12,500 has been allocated via its 2026 Community Contribution Fund.
And all seven successful applicants have expressed their delight and excitement that their grants will enable community-based projects to be realised this year.
“It just means the world to us, and I’m sure all the recipients,” said Rhonda Rotheram, the secretary of fledgling Neighbourhood Watch Bellarine whose $3150 was the largest individual grant given.
“For us, as a new group that has a big community to represent, it can be a bit daunting as to how to get started and make inroads in all the things we’d like to achieve, so this is amazing news and we’re really grateful to all at the golf club.
“(In our instance), it will really help us to be able to identify to the community our volunteers and that visibility is a key part of what we need to achieve … in letting people know that Neighbourhood Watch is still around and going strong.”
Other groups to be given money from the Community Contribution Fund were the North Bellarine Film Festival ($2000), a combined clubhouse project of the St Leonards cricket and soccer clubs ($2000), the workshops of two separate “Men’s Shed” projects at Clifton Springs ($1700) and St Leonards ($1700), a community defibrillator to be based at the Portarlington Football and Netball Club ($1650) and an upgrade of some Bellarine North Rotary Club equipment ($300).
The total of $12,500 means that in the past six financial years, the Portarlington Golf Club has given charitable support directly to the community of more than $180,000.
In that time, the CCF component has become the biggest single source of community initiatives with more than $60,000 in such grants alone.
The CCF was established to support not-for-profit community or sporting organisations to make positive improvements that will, in turn, benefit the wider community.
This year, highlighting just how much the CCF means to these institutions, the club received a record 32 grant applications totalling in excess of $100,000.
“We really think these donations have become incredibly important within our community, as evidenced by the number of people asking for assistance,” PGC chief executive Michael Phillips said.
“So we’re delighted that so many projects will come to fruition as a result of the grants and, in particular, that so many of them will help fulfil a broader community need.”
