By Megan Woolley and Jamie Furness
At the age of only 18, Melissa Rogaloff became the youngest branch manager of a bank in Australia. Today she uses her connections at BOQ Forest Lake to uplift the local community.
As the BOQ Forest Lake Community Engagement Officer and Marketer, and a connected community member, Melissa is able to leverage her resources and role to support charitable community groups.
One of the 39-year-olds most recent endeavours was becoming an ambassador for Kids4Kids Foundation, a charity established in Shailer Park that provides school supplies to struggling students.
Knowing several of the board members, she was able to get her foot in the door.
“I’ve known Tanya Glancy and Jane Tan for some time, they are in the Rotary Club of Browns Plains and I was a member until last year when I was pregnant,” she said.
“When I came back to work I noticed they initiated an account with us so that’s when I invited them to meet with me and we had a conversation about what BOQ could do to give back.
“It made sense for me to become an ambassador.”
As an ambassador for Kids4Kids, Melissa has arranged for BOQ Forest Lake to be a drop off point for school supplies, including stationery, school shoes, lunch boxes, and more.
“We will have a bin location in our branch and will be advertising that heavily on Facebook, and through the shopping centre social media page.
“I will also be going around to all of the local schools and all of the local daycare centres to see if they’re also happy to take a bin and start collecting on my behalf.”
Kids4Kids was started by eight-year-old Samuel Glancy, the son of Tanya Glancy, who wanted to help other kids but didn’t know how yet. Once he realised some of his peers’ families couldn’t afford learning materials, he knew he had found his mission.
With the help of his mum, Kids4Kids became a registered charity organisation and has provided over 100,000 school supplies to children across 13 schools in Logan since 2017.
The charity held a raffle and auction fundraiser event in October. Melissa attended with her family on behalf of BOQ and as an ambassador, where she donated two $50 BOQ accounts to the raffle prize pool.
The event saw a large crowd of locals as well as Cr John Raven, Mick Debrenni MP, Bert Van Menan MP for Forde, Cr Tony Hall and Cr Mindy Russell show their support for the good cause.
Other community groups that BOQ engage with include Allstars Performing Arts, the Darra Bowls Club, and Early Birds Daycare.
They also sponsor and get heavily involved in organising community events like the Forest Lake Markets, and school fetes.
Another initiative the branch has run is a scam awareness seminar for seniors in the Aveo Durack and Settlers retirement communities in November.
Melissa and her husband Matt currently live and are building a home in Pallara with their three children; Paige, 12 who attends St John’s Anglican College, Peyton nine, and Piper, four months old.
Learn more about Kids4Kids Foundation at the link: https://kids4kidsfoundation.org.au/
