Local Community Involvement
Katrina Wilford
Meet Katrina Wilford (Team Member), Officeworks Marion
(SA). She is one of our true Community Involvement
champions. She is so passionate about helping make
bigger things happen for our communities that she was
also one of our highest individual fundraisers for both this
year’s Back to School Appeal and ALNF Wall of Hands.
Find out why she loves being a community
involvement coordinator for her store.
Tell us a bit about yourself, how long you
have been with Officeworks and why you are
passionate about the community?
I have been with Officeworks for nearly
8.5 years and have been the community
involvement coordinator for seven years. I
am very passionate about the community
because I have seen first-hand that people can
go through hardship and it’s not a nice thing.
What does your store do to be
involved in the community?
Our store tries to help as many local
communities as we can by donating goods
(mostly gift baskets) to them so they can
then fundraise for their groups by having quiz
nights, raffles etc. We also volunteer our time
by helping Foodbank and The Smith Family
Toy and Book Appeal, as well as recycling our
cardboard tubes and small rolls for the local
kindy to use plus many more donations!
Can you provide a recent example of
when you were proud of a community
contribution that your store was involved in?
A recent community donation made me
extremely proud to be able to help a small
local primary school which is in a lower
socio-economic area. They had 15 year
seven students graduate into high school,
so I made up a pack of supplies for each of
them to help make their transition easier.
One girl came up and thanked me and said
‘My mum doesn’t have to worry now’
which made me feel sad but also glad
we could help. A couple of team
members helped hand out the packs
and we also had tour of the school and
our photo taken with a special wall
painted by the students.
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I work with a fantastic team at Marion and
they always try and do their best to raise as
much as they can for national partners down
to the smallest local community groups.
Why is community involvement
important for your store?
I think it’s great for our store name to be out in
the community. Local people know how much
Officeworks Marion help the community and
that’s why I think they are so generous when it
comes to supporting The Smith Family, ALNF,
RUTMAD and the RSL as well as shopping and
visiting our store.
What do you have planned in the
next few months for your store
around community involvement?
In the next few months I am planning to visit
another local kindy to help them out and to
visit a local elder’s group that I have just heard
about to see if I can help them in any way.
I have packs to make up for the Marion View
Club to take to some Smith Family children in
Pt Augusta. There are many more gift baskets
I will be making up as well as looking forward
to the next RUTMAD.