3 minute read
Member Moments
Everglades for Everyone
BY LYNDAL STUART, DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Better Together Christmas is a time to celebrate a sense of community and belonging. At Everglades House & Gardens, 17 people who would otherwise not have had friends and family to share the occasion with enjoyed a festive lunch, a laugh and great company in a beautiful place.
ELSEWHERE IN THE MOUNTAINS… DONORS DAY OUT
In late October 2019, 32 of the National Trust (NSW)’s generous donors were bussed up the Great Western Highway bound for the Blue Mountains. The group was provided with a tour of Woodford Academy and heard from the volunteer Management Committee while they explored the oldest complex of colonial buildings in the Blue Mountains. The tour was followed by lunch at the Norman Lindsay Gallery in Faulconbridge. Here, guests dined under the verandah and saw firsthand the investment needed in this historic site that is now over 100 years old. We are very grateful to have had the chance to share these special places with our supporters and demonstrate how valuable investment in heritage is for the community.
From September to December 2019, the National Trust (NSW) appealed for donations for urgent conservation works and restoration to areas of the Norman Lindsay Gallery. At the time of printing this magazine, $85,000 had been raised of the total $100,000 needed. The National Trust (NSW) would like to thank all donors for their generous support of this appeal. All gifts make a difference and ensure the ongoing conservation of our state’s heritage are shared for the next generation.
You can donate online to the National Trust (NSW) here: nationaltrust.org.au/donate-nsw/.
People like Trish Lloyd bring the National Trust’s community spirit to life and made Christmas a magical time at Everglades House & Gardens last year.
The National Trust is more than an organisation – we’re a community that comes together with a shared passion for heritage. It is often said that we are like a big family. Christmas is a time to be with people you care about and one of the weekend managers at Everglades House & Gardens, Trish Lloyd, realised that a colleague would be spending the festive season alone. She was about to extend an invitation for her friend to share Christmas with her family when it occurred to her that there may be other people in the Everglades community without family or friends close by.
Guy McIlraith, the National Trust’s Property Manager at Everglades House & Gardens, agreed to open the Art Deco house to 17 people on Christmas Day who enjoyed a festive lunch, each other’s company, and the spectacular gardens and views to Mt Solitary and the Jamison Valley.
“I discussed the idea with my mother and three daughters, and they were totally on board!” Trish Lloyd says. “They thought it would be lovely to spend the day with people who were at that time relatively unknown to them. This took nothing away from us spending the day together as a family, in fact it brought a deeper sense of meaning to the day. So my family also benefited.
“For us, Christmas Day and the days just before and just after Christmas have always been special in the sense that it is a time of year when we all get together as a family and share quality time,” Trish says. “Apart from that though, we wanted to recapture the Christmas spirit, something we all felt had been missing over the past years.
