News & Articles
A Breath of Fresh Aire
Our second year REEFies have had a big year of offsite camps, each pushing them to try new things and take on new challenges – their most recent camp was no different! The Cottage busses were all packed for an early pick up ahead of our 2-hour drive down the Great Ocean Road to Aire […]
The Sun, The Sand and a Very Happy Halloween
On Monday afternoon, Cottage staff took the short drive to Geelong Train Station to meet 14 eager faces – four kids from Ultima Primary School and 10 kids from Lake Charm Primary School, along with three of their teachers. The small group had been travelling for over four hours to reach us, and so the […]
A weekend Well Spent With Our Mentors
It was great to see some familiar smiling faces around the Cottage recently when our younger group of year 8 & 9 Mentors came to stay over the weekend. Sadly, it was the last chance for the two groups of Mentors from Werribee and St Albans/Kings Park to hang out together before the end of the […]
The Not-So-Sunny Sunshine State
At the end of October, we traveled to Brisbane to meet a group of 14 indigenous grade five and six from the communities of Palm Island and Woorabinda. The Cottage staff expected it to be a week of fun in the sun with the kids, only to be greeted by the cities heaviest rain in […]
Camping at Cumberland
There’s nothing more exciting than the first official, Cottage offsite camp for our junior REEFies! The camp begun at the crack of dawn on Tuesday the 10th of October, when staff members Jess, Troy, Bill, Foxy, Natalie and Sean arrived at the Cottage to pack all the camping gear, food and the bare necessities into the […]
It’s the Little Things That Count
A group of our year 10-12 Mentors took some time out of their school holidays to come and enjoy the spring sunshine down at the Cottage. The ten students were picked up early on Tuesday morning around in Geelong and then headed towards Connewarre to enjoy a morning canoe along the lake, followed by a BBQ […]
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Moulamein
Can you believe it’s that time of the year already? That’s right, the time when Cottage by the Sea packs all its camping gear into our buses and trailers and hit the road for a six-hour journey to a small town known as Moulamein in New South Wales. Each September, our friend and supporter, Peter […]
2017 Annual Report
Welcome to our Annual Report for the Financial Year ended 30th June 2017 and what a marvellous year it has been in the 127 year of Cottage by the Sea. Download the PDF
Forward Thinking Fundraising
The rise of digital technology has generated many trends that come and go. For charitable organisations, it has bred a whole new world of opportunity to communicate with the public and generate donations and support. There has been recent emphasis surrounding corporate social responsibility among companies, but actively fulfilling this remains an outlier in the […]
Double the Kids, Double the Fun!
Every two years, Cottage by the Sea works in partnership with St Albans Primary School and their staff to run a short, yet fulfilling camp. It is usually one of our bigger camps for the year, having between 40-50 kids participating and all the Cottage staff jump on board to be a part of it […]
A Good Dose of Vitamin Sea
After enduring a very long bus ride in the early hours of Tuesday morning, our Cottage staff was pleased to meet a mixed group of grade four, five and six students from two different schools known as St Arnaud and St Patrick’s, based in the regional Victorian town of St Arnaud. St Arnaud is a […]
Spring has Sprung
Cottage by the Sea sprang into spring with the help of 18 students from Werribee and Tottenham WELS (Western English Language Schools) and their two staff members Kani and Emma this week. Although the weather was still in winter mode, we were more than prepared for four days of non-stop activities, opportunities, inspiration and fun! […]
Cottage by the Outback
Escaping the winter cold was on the cards for Cottage employees Natalie, Jess, Troy and Linton when they were given the incredible opportunity to fly to Darwin for six days in late August to participate on a Cathy Freeman Horizon’s Program Camp. The week began early on a Monday morning, where the team of Cottage […]
From the Country to the Coast
Quite often at the Cottage we have children who travel from all over Victoria to participate in our Take-A-Break program. This week was no different with 18 children from a small school in North Bendigo, known as Lightning Reef Primary. Alongside the kids we had three of their lovely teaching staff attend too, who generously […]
A winter escape!
Recently, Cottage staff members Sean, Natalie and Troy were lucky enough to spend 5 days soaking up the Brisbane sun alongside 11 Indigenous students (from two different Queensland communities), their teachers and staff members from the Cathy Freeman Foundation. This was our 3rd camp for the year partnering with the Cathy Freeman Foundation and our first […]
REEFies at the snow
Is there really a better way to finish off the month of July than by spending two full weeks at the snow? Well for our lucky second year REEF kids and staff members Jess, Bill, Sean, Troy, Fox, Jae and Nat, that’s exactly what we did! Our annual snow camp was held once again at […]
What your donation does
Many individuals and businesses make donations largely based on their financial situation at the time to determine the donation amount. That is fine, as all donations are welcome, big or small! However, imagine making the decision based on the impact your money can make on a young person’s wellbeing. Knowing exactly how far your donation […]
Some words from Caitlyn
The week began with the older Mentors meeting the younger Mentors for the first time, but that was no issue at all as they began to communicate over lunch. The afternoon began with a guest speaker, CBTS Ambassador Warren Davies, talking to the kids about their, ‘Why?’ and teaching them how to create big goals […]
