After driving past a couple living in their car all throughout winter, pilates instructor Vicky Kamakaris decided she could use her platform for good.
Having trained and taught Stable One chief executive officer Katherine Kirkwood pilates for nine years, Ms Kamakaris said after a brief conversation three weeks ago, an event was in motion.
“It was just in my heart. And earlier in the year, I’d run a mat Pilates for Parkinson’s and people said, ‘Whatever you run, we will come to’,” she said.
“So I just thought, I need to use this for the good. And I just wanted to raise $1000.”
Within one class, Ms Kirkwood and Ms Kamakaris had most of the details decided, and The Hundred for the Homeless came to life, scheduled for Saturday 13 December from 10am to 12pm at the Lilydale Baptist Church.
For Stable One, which launched an end-of-year $20,000 fundraising campaign at the start of November, Ms Kirkwood said the pilates event would make a huge difference to both the finances but also exposure.
“What I’m most excited about, apart from the financial impact, and that’s really good, but also raising the profile, not just of Stable One, but of the need in our community,” Ms Kirkwood said.
“Very few people know that there’s no crisis combination in the Yarra Valley. So it’s a huge problem. It’s quite hidden out here because there’s a lot of space for people to go and camp in the bush or what have you.
“The more we can do to raise awareness for our Yarra Valley Winter Shelter, we are definitely looking for more volunteers. We have some wonderful volunteers, but the average age of our volunteers is 70-plus, so we need some young blood. We need to keep the programme sustainable. So this is really great to raise awareness among a different cohort.”
A volunteer at Stable One is also a client of Ms Kamakaris, and she very generously spoke at the end of one of the classes, highlighting the ease with which people these days might experience homelessness.
“What came out of that for us was that it’s not just ‘other people’. It can be you. It can be me,” Ms Kamakaris said.
“Raising awareness that it’s not just someone who’s drug or alcohol addicted, it could be just that things just start to go wrong, especially with the spiralling economy.”
The importance, Ms Kirkwood said, of places like the Winter Shelter is early intervention for people who have never experienced homelessness before, and don’t know where to turn.
“We had a guy last year, who did not fit the mould of and the stereotype of a homeless person. I say that in inverted commas, because we like to say people, a person experiencing homelessness.
“With the winter shelter, what that did for him was it stopped the spiral, because he had just suddenly found himself homeless. He’d never been homeless before. He was in his late 50s, and suddenly, he was on the street. He had no other option, and he spent two nights on the street, terrified, in shock.”
Through the support of the Winter Shelter, he was able to find accommodation.
Understanding that “we can’t help everyone, we can’t solve homelessness”, Ms Kirkwood said every dollar raised just ensures that immediate help is available to people.
Tickets to The Hundred for the Homeless are $30, with morning tea supplied and all proceeds going to Stable One’s Make Room this Christmas appeal.
Hear from Ms Kirkwood on the day and join in the fun of a mat pilates session. For those who are unable to take part in pilates, you are welcome to attend and watch or just arrive for morning tea.
It’s BYO mat, although the floor is carpeted, should you not have one available.
Lilydale Baptist Church is located on the corner of Hull and Swansea Roads in Lilydale.
To register for the event, go to: trybooking.com/events/landing/1500513
To donate directly to Stable One’s appeal, visit: stableone.org/donate/
