On the Bone and a Merry Christmas with K-Dawg
14/12/2016
On the Bone and a Merry Christmas with K-Dawg
What a year it’s been. Okay, so where do I start!
ERCWA Charity Gala Ball: a huge success
This year’s Charity Gala Ball was a staggering success, raising over $44,000 and valuable awareness for the work we do. Thanks to everyone’s generous support, we will be able to offer many more at risk children respite and personal development opportunities to an equal number of young adult mentors.
Our 300 guests enjoyed an entertainment-filled evening at Crown’s Grand Ballroom, with MC Kymba Cahill from Mix94.5, a roving magician, acrobatics, stilt-walkers, a burlesque fan dance performance, face-painting and a photo booth – to name only a few things!
The night wasn’t just about having fun, though, and I think that like me our guests were moved by the stories and experiences Rebekah shared in our new community film. Produced in partnership with Beyond Bank, it really demonstrates the difference we make in young people’s lives. Rebekah was once a disadvantaged child who attended our camps and has since become a very enthusiastic camp leader.
This, and the countless stories that were shared both onstage and in conversations with our youth leaders, hopefully inspired everyone to continue to support our community and people living in the margins.
Our 2017 Charity Gala Ball will be held on Saturday 9 September 2017 at Crown Perth so save the date!
Our important new partnership with Beyond Bank
Our new corporate/community partner Beyond Bank are simply fantastic, employ great people and have already sponsored our Golf Day and Charity Gala Ball, as well as helping to produce our short promo film.
On top of all of this, they’ve set up a special initiative where we receive a donation when people open a Beyond Bank savings account (Community Reward Account) and nominate us as their charity of choice. Beyond Bank makes a donation to us (at no cost to the customer) that’s based on the annual balance of savings held. Currently that balance is around $330,000 and we received a cheque for just under $4,000 this year!!
Here are just a few of the benefits of a Community Reward Account:
- It’s fee free banking
- You get higher returns on your savings
- There’s no establishment fee on personal loans
- There are extra rewards if you bring a home loan to them
- You know you’re contributing to a worthy cause
Check it out: www.beyondbank.com.au/rewardpackage
Welcoming Kymba as an official Eddie Ricer
As well as returning to MC our annual Charity Gala Ball, Kymba Cahill (Mix94.5) has joined us as our first official ERCWA Ambassador.
Roped in by a friend to MC last year’s Charity Gala Ball, Kymba fell in love with what we do and is now an avid supporter, having a very strong connection to social justice herself. Since becoming our ambassador she has hosted several events, volunteered on our camps, interviewed me on the radio and much, much more.
We’re very excited to welcome Kymba into our team and look forward to many more years working together to help enrich the lives of WA kids.
You can catch Kymba on Mix94.5’s breakfast show – and at The Callan Cup, our Charity Golf Day, on Friday 24 February. Read on for more info!
Join us at The Callan Cup: our Charity Golf Day
Bacon and egg rolls and coffee on arrival as sustenance, 18 holes of golf at Royal Perth Golf Club, a sumptuous lunch hosted by Kymba from Mix94.5, Brad Ness (star of Australian wheelchair basketball) as our guest speaker. What more could you ask for?
Whether you’re an amateur or a pro you’re sure to have a great time at our annual Callan Cup Golf Day on Friday 24 February. You can also bid to enjoy lunch or even play golf alongside Brad Ness on the day. Bidding closes on Tuesday 14 February.
If you’d like to book a team or find out more please contact me on 0414 441 844 or kknapp@edmundrice.org.
Telethon Community Cinemas
ERCWA is a very proud and grateful partner of Telethon Community Cinemas. This year once again we’re a valued charity partner and we have committed to providing volunteers to help run the outdoor cinemas.
This commitment raises tens of thousands of dollars for our charity and to be successful we need a large number of dedicated volunteers. This year we received a cheque for just over $142,000 and to date (over three years) we have received just under $260,000.
If you would like to know more about this great opportunity to help ERCWA and what Telethon Community Cinemas does please contact Nicole Mancini on 0429 913 364 or nmancini@edmundrice.org
Ministry Leaders Conference
I recently attended the Christian Brother Oceania Province Ministry Leaders Conference in Melbourne. I was impressed and inspired by the wide reach our organisation has and the vast amount of good work that’s being done here and overseas. We have ministries operating in Australia, New Zealand, Timor Leste, The Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Each one of them is answering to the call of the marginalised in the world we live in. We’re working with and walking alongside literally thousands of marginalised children and families.
As an organisation, however, Oceania Province is at a crossroads regarding the future funding of our ministries and the involvement of the Christian Brothers, many of whom are now getting to the age where they can no longer work in ministry due to ill health. It’s anticipated that ministries will need to be completely self-sustaining within the next 10 years or so and that they will be largely or completely managed by laypeople.
We need to be innovative in our approach to securing/establishing sustainable funding models and collaborative as we work hand in hand with the Christian Brothers to facilitate a handover of responsibility for ministry while critically retaining our identities as expressions of the Edmund Rice Charism through the work that we do.
Our partnership with Telethon Community Cinemas, the development of fundraising events and the coordinated national approach to securing new corporate partners are some of the key initiatives being undertaken to secure longer term and more diverse funding streams. Our multiyear partnerships with Lawleys Café and Bakery and the Behets Family Foundation have also been initiatives that have established longer term support from community minded business people and families.
We also have a perfect opportunity to learn a great deal from the Christian Brothers who work and visit here at Westcourt. Through effective engagement with them we will be best placed to carry the Edmund Rice Charism into the future.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
To all of our Edmund Rice Family, kids, carers, parents, volunteer leaders, sponsors and community partners, committee and board members and staff Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Merry Christmas from K Dawgs best friend Frisky the cat and Ed the Ted
K – Dawg (aka CEO Kevin Knapp)
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