Dear Members
Welcome to our new Website – I am Ashley Andrew, PBDA President
As the new President of the PBDA firstly I would like to acknowledge the amazing achievements of our former President, John Rae OAM and his enormous contribution to Portarlington and its transformation over the past 13 years. I’m honoured to commence this important role and have a huge job to follow on from John. Another year has passed and the PBDA has achieved some amazing results.
Our membership continues to grow and is now over 200.
We welcomed the Melbourne Cup to Portarlington in October – carried over on the Ferry, greeted by a line of honour from our Primary School students and 2magnificent horses, the Cup visited Businesses in Town, we held functions at the Grand Hotel and Portarlington Golf Club raising funds for our Christmas Gift Program.
At our Christmas function in December, we recognised and congratulated our 2 Award winners – Daryle Trewin, a local builder, received our Business Award for his long service to the Portarlington Community and Glen Jose, our Community award, for his tireless work within the Community.
Our Christmas Gift Program raised $23,600 -with 33 $700 and 2 $250 packages donated to local families in need this year. I must acknowledge Jenny King & Kerry Trewin for co-ordinating the program as well as our generous members for their contributions to ensure these families were able to enjoy their Christmas.
We held an evening in November to honour John Rae OAM’s achievements at the Grand Hotel – this was a fabulous evening to celebrate John’s contribution to Portarlington.
Our members networking dinner at Claribeaux in March raised $2,700 for Geelong Oncology Nurse Appreciation and will go towards providing a scholarship to a nurse in Geelong. This great cause has been established by one of our members, Marlene Ebejer, who wanted to recognize the fantastic support she received during her recent battle with cancer.
This year, PBDA Executive will focus on 4 major initiatives that we believe are vital to Portarlington’s future.
- Attractions: we need to support initiatives that will attract visitors and younger families to Portarlington. For instance, a Chocolatier is proposed in Point Richards Road – this would create over 100 jobs during construction and many employment opportunities upon completion.
- Accommodation: Portarlington has a massive accommodation shortage, and we need to support suitable proposals that create accommodation to attract more people to visit.
- Transportation: is another service that is needed to ensure that visitors can travel around our wonderful town and region to enjoy what we have to offer.
- Sustainability of the PBDA financially: in the future we will hold fundraising events to maintain the current annual membership at $150 for as long as we can.
The PBDA’s Business & Community Directory as well as Member Communications will go electronic this year with a new and vastly improved website – this will be amazing as it will increase the reach of our Directory and allow member businesses to offer initiatives to our members as well as the public to generate new business.
Thank you to all members for your continued support of the PBDA. Whilst acknowledging the challenging economic conditions we are all facing, I look forward with positivity to the coming year.
Ashley Andrew,
President, PBDA
