Photo: Supplied.
Natalie Lutter learned a lot about kindness by doing it tough. Fleeing from domestic violence with two children was followed by a period of relying on food and clothing vouchers and struggling to find accommodation.
“After I’d settled on Macleay, I broke an ankle. I couldn’t use crutches because of breast cancer surgery, and I found it impossible to source a wheelchair on the island,” says Natalie. “Then a friend and her husband were in a car accident and needed mobility aids – again, not available on the island, so we had to source them from the mainland.
“I didn’t want anyone else going through all that, so we started Bay Island Kindness (BIK), which is dedicated to lifting our community, offering inclusive, judgement-free support connecting people of all ages and backgrounds through creative community programs. We put out a call for donations, and people from the islands contacted us with mobility aids, clothes and other essentials. Our house looked like an op shop for a while, but now we have the cottage, a rent-free house made available by its generous non-resident owner, Audily.
“BIK has been going for six years and we have a fantastic team now,” she says. “We fundraised to buy a shipping container for storage and the Kindness Cottage is now available for community use for folk from all the islands. It has a parents’ room, a baby change area, a mother’s nursing chair, a lounge room with board games and TV, and a playroom for children with toys and books – and the children are building a Fairy Garden.
“In the kitchen, there are coffee facilities, a bread-making machine, and a community pantry to donate to or take from as needed. There’s bed linen and blankets, a washing machine, a sewing machine, a bathroom with a bathtub and a toilet. Some facilities operate on a coin donation if the person can afford it.”
The Cottage has become a chill-out spot where support workers or counsellors can bring their clients, and there’s a computer room for people to access technology or study. The team assists with rehoming pets and helps to source accommodation for homeless people; Summer, a local nurse, keeps her finger on the pulse –literally and figuratively – of the community.
“We can’t do it all, so we’ve developed good working relationships with other community help groups. We have a remarkable team – Gayle, Carol, Vicki, Ron, David, Debbie, Costa, Joe, Lee and the rest of the crew, they’re all just incredible – as are the businesses and the community as a whole.”
Donations continue to come in – even from Long Island, America, by dint of a confusion in geography and a generous heart. The group’s social media postings include regular uplifting messages and more practical calls like: “Can you come and collect these bananas for the pantry?”
