Godfrey Street Community House
Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (09:54): Godfrey Street Community House is now 40 years old. In 1983 Moorabbin council purchased a series of properties along Godfrey Street, Bentleigh, to extend the Bentleigh shops car park. A group of local people then got together to campaign for number 9 to become a community house instead. Forty years later it is still there and thriving. For many years I have been president of the committee of management, and I pay tribute to everyone who has made the community house the welcoming place it is today. To all of the founders – people like former manager Shirley Franklin and former Bentleigh and Oakleigh MP Ann Barker – thank you. Thank you to Helen Howells, who was manager for many years until recently, and to our new managers Allison Connell and Vas Dede; to Tracey Manning, who has passionately managed the childcare centre for many years, making it a centre of first choice in the area for many families; to Russell Nolan Lewis, who introduced a new art program to the house in 2010, which is still going strong today; and to people who are no longer with us – people like Pat Boyd, who ran the childcare centre for many years before serving on the committee of management, and Sheila Sojka, who started a singing group which still gets together every week. Over 40 years there have literally been thousands of people who have made a contribution to Godfrey Street. That is exactly what a community house is: a place run by the community that responds to the needs of the community. I am very much looking forward to the next 40 years of Godfrey Street, but not as president.