DONATIONS are now being accepted under the Frankston Giving Tree. Gifts and non-perishable items donated at the giving tree will be passed on to local people struggling this Christmas. Hampers with the donated items will be distributed at the Frankston Life Community Christmas Lunch. The free community lunch is held on Christmas Day each year, with the help of 150 volunteers. Event co-ordinator Pastor Mark Whitby said “each year, the crowd gets larger at the Frankston Life Community Christmas lunch. Thanks to our volunteers, Christmas becomes a little easier for those struggling. The true blessing of Christmas is all about…
Author: Bayside News
THE first Frankston Christmas Festival of Lights since the COVID-19 pandemic has been heralded as a success. A big crowd turned out to see the fireworks, listen to the music, and see Frankston’s Norfolk Pine lit up. Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy said the return of the event was “very special”. “Live entertainment, fantastic food and drink, activities for the kids, the Christmas market, the lighting of the tree and of course a fantastic fireworks display. That’s how we do it in Frankston. When we do something, we do it well,” he said. “It’s what makes us one of the most…
A COMPACT suburban garden in Frankston grown over the last four years will open for the final time this weekend. Heartland, keen horticulturalist Jac Semmler’s garden, will open on 3 December and 4 December. It features a perennial garden, a rain-fed verge garden, a walled garden with pizza oven, an outdoor bath and potting shed, a vegie patch, cut flowers, chickens, and a small orchard. Semmler says that the garden reflects her “broad encompassing love of all different kinds of plants, as you will see from Australian wildflowers through to woodland specimens.” “The plants I grow also catalogue beautiful relationships…
A CAMPAIGN highlighting the effects of gender-based violence is underway. Anti-violence campaigner Phil Cleary launched Frankston’s “16 days of activism against gender-based violence” campaign last week. Cleary’s sister Vicki was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 1987. “Women are still being murdered in situations where we could have stopped the killer. Each year around 60 families still grieve,” Cleary said. “I think women today are more likely to tell people about men’s violence. Vicki didn’t tell us that she was experiencing violence. “I had a life of football. I was a known person. If I had known about his harassment in…
SKYBUS will begin running its “peninsula express” buses to the airport from next week. SkyBus will be picking up passengers from Frankston, Chelsea, Mordialloc, Mentone, Moorabbin, Brighton, and Elsternwick on its way to the airport. The bayside bus service runs from 4 December onwards. The bus route has been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. SkyBus co-CEO Michael Sewards said he was “delighted” to announce its return. “We had to make some tough but necessary decisions at the onset of COVID to suspend some of our express services and this impacted the lives of many of our team who have helped…