$5k down thanks to Geelong Rotary Club

Tom Dunn
Jun 22, 2016
2 min read

Hi everyone,

Some great news has come from the past week, here's a quick blog to catch you up on all our progress.

Firstly, and most excitingly, we have secured a $5,000 donation from the Geelong Rotary Club. This incredibly generous donation is almost 10% of our total goal!! A huge thank you goes to the Geelong Rotary Club we can't wait to meet with them, to thank them personally! It was a really special feeling to realise that we now only need $54,850 to reach our $60k goal. Whilst there's still a long way to go and even further to paddle, it's nice to make some progress so early on.

This week I was also lucky enough to travel to Melbourne and have two really promising meetings. The first meeting was with Noel Henderson, Deaf Children Australia (DCA)'s Fundraising General Manager. It was great to meet Noel and hear how excited DCA are about SUP4DCA. Noel and his team have been hard at work, promoting our cause and contacting potential sponsors since the creation of SUP4DCA. Noel himself secured the Geelong Rotary Club Donation. The support of DCA's network of employees, volunteers, and followers helps us to spread our cause and take the next steps towards reaching our goal. On a personal note it was fantastic to hear that some of the DCA employees are planning to come and accompany myself on the river throughout the trip.

The second meeting was with Kerry Uebergang from Deakin Universities. Kerry is in charge of the Waurn Ponds residential campus, from my own time on 'res' I can say she does a fantastic job. After speaking with Kerry I am thrilled to say, I have been given the opportunity to speak to the 2016 residential students at there "Logie Night". University students aren't known for their great financial positioning and while the night is unlikely to raise many funds, their is a great chance to spread the word about SUP4DCA. Majority of these students predominantly grew up in rural areas of Australia, and therefore can relate to our cause. In the next decade some of these students will return to the rural areas in which they grew up in with many settling down and starting a family. To think that they could look back to this talk and have the knowledge that if their own child is born with a disability, there are services out there that can help. That could be an even greater success than raising the $60,000.

We continue to look for more sponsors each day, and would like to emphasis that we aren't asking for one company to donate the remaining $54,850 in one hit. Each little bit counts and if everyone gives what they can, then together we stand together to make a difference.

If you think you, your company, or even your idea could offer assistance to the trip we would love to hear from you. Please email sup4dca@outlook.com

With several 'meetings' coming up, hopefully there will be even more great news to share!

Until then, Tom.