Dozens of Greek organisations are getting together to support a fundraising dinner dance for the Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture, organised by the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM). 

This event is bringing together more than 50 organizations and will take place on Saturday, 17 October 2015, at 7.00pm, in the Stars International Reception (1c Bell St., Preston), with a rich entertaining program, Greek food, dancing and a lot of gifts.

GCM president Mr. Bill Papastergiadis said that this event is organized for several reasons. "First and foremost is the revival of the annual dinner dance of the Greek Community of Melbourne, since last time held was over 30 years ago. This is something requested by our members repeatedly. "

Mr. Papastergiadis highlighted also the special character of this event: Is organized in collaboration with a large number of organizations and the GCM

fundraising committee includes representatives of these organizations too.

"The difference is, that before this event was just a GCM dinner dance, but now has an important role. It becomes an event of the whole community and involves more than 50 small and large organizations. In short, this event unites our community and proves that together we can achieve a lot. I am proud we had such an exceptional response and within two weeks 600 tickets were sold. This is something unprecedented,” he said.

He also added that this response highlights the trust the Greek community has now in the GCM and its programs.

Mr. Papastergiadis also pointed that "this event has another equally important role because gives the opportunity to launch a debate on the future of the Greek community. To continue the discussion we started, earlier this year, for the next steps we should take together as a community, for our future.

“For this reason, we already invited this year three times Greek organizations to take part in meetings to discuss these issues. We continue to believe in cooperation and unity, but as a community we are at a critical juncture, and we need to discuss several critical issues. This event, the GCM annual dinner dance, gives us the opportunity to be all together and to continue the dialogue on these issues.”

According to Mr. Papastergiadis, all Greek organizations need to coordinate their future actions to discuss the serious problems faced by the Greeks in Australia, most notably the preservation and promotion of our language and culture and the survival problem many Greek organisations are facing at the moment or they will face soon.

"There is also an urgent need to discuss higher education issues and the operation and support of the Greek Departments at universities," Mr. Papastergiadis said and he added that if we want this to be successful, must be done with all Greek organizations together.

“The GCM is a small part of our community and aims to work closely with all Greek organizations for the common good," he said. "We want to be together, to cooperate and work together for our future."