• Organisation

Sunshine Association

Details

The Sunshine Association formed in 1937 to raise funds to provide holidays for children from poor or isolated homes. In 1951, the Association opened the Sunshine Home which closed in 1980. In 2012, the Association provides funds for holiday camps and sports activities as well as educational and medical expenses for children in poverty or with disabilities.

The impetus for the Sunshine Association came from Margaret Reid, an infant school headmistress, and Dora Baudinet, a school nurse. Both of the women believed that the holidays would strengthen the children’s resistance to illness. The Sunshine Home, which was in Howrah, a suburb of Hobart, was intended to provide those holidays.

The Lions Club took over the Sunshine Association in 1976 when the Sunshine Home closed because of lack of funds. They managed to support it for three years but it closed for the last time in 1980. In 1985, with the encouragement of the Lions Club, the Sunshine Association sold the property to Clarence Council which redeveloped it into the Howrah Sunshine Recreation Centre which opened in 1988. Interest from the funds that the sale generated have enabled the Sunshine Association to carry out its activities.

In 2012, the Sunshine Association has three regional committees which receive funding to redistribute for the benefit of children who lack privileges. Sometimes these committees seek extra support from their own communities. The Sunshine Association continues to be run by the Lions Club.

In 2013 Sunshine Association reported that it did not have any records of the Sunshine Home.

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