Annual Report - 2010

Sammy D Foundation

Sammy D Foundation Annual Report 2010 Prepared by Nat Cook, Neil Davis and Janine Hook

For and on behalf of The Sammy D Foundation October 2010

Sam lost his life in a violent incident outside of a friend‟s party. He was struck once from behind and this was enough to stop the blood flow to his brain. One violent incident is enough to take a life and change many lives forever.

The Sammy D Foundation is Sam‟s voice and this is a voice that must be heard. If we save one life we have done our job and honored Sam in the way we intended.

The Journey 6

Chief Executive Report 8

Programs 10

- Impact 11

- Connect - Encourage, Motivate, Reward 14

- Party Wise 18

Volunteers 20

Events 25

After tragedy comes a period where you make decisions that will affect the rest of your lives. When Sam was taken from us we went through all of the normal feelings of sadness, desperation, anger and denial. What we knew was that we were spared the mental images of what actually happened to Sam...

The Journey

Many of Sam’s friends were not so lucky. The vision of Sam, collapsing, lying on the ground, the panic of him not breathing, the desperate battle to breathe life back into him and the paramedics working on him. These images are all burned into their minds forever. Most of the young people that were present had to recall these events over and over again throughout the course of a police investigation and also involuntarily during their lives. Sleep didn’t come easily. Quiet times became tormented times where memories and feelings of regret and anger would take over. The knowledge that one awful decision could cause so many people’s lives to be changed forever in such a profound way made us determined to make a difference to the way people behaved. Decisions were made in the time immediately following Sam’s death that would provide an opportunity for these brave and loyal friends to make a difference in the lives of others, to prevent them from living a life full of anger, regret and revenge.

To offer these young people a way to keep the memory of their friend alive in a positive way and to help other young people make decisions that might prevent this type of incident from happening was the most positive way we saw to protect them. June 4th 2008, one month to the day since Sam’s death, a group of committed family and friends met to talk about making the idea of the foundation a reality. The name had been decided by Sam’s football coach at South Adelaide, who as a way of identifying Sam from another player with the same name, called him Sammy D. We called him Sammy when he was young but it really stuck later in his teen years and apart from anything we and Sam’s mates think that it really suits him. So the Sammy D Foundation was formed with a definite commitment to help young people who are disengaged or living in disadvantage become involved in activities that provided positive relationships, mentoring and support while building healthy lifestyles and supporting positive choices. It was clear that we knew sport and found it easy to structure our goals around it while involving other people with a passion in music and art down the track would help us to diversify.

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For the first year of the foundation’s existence there was the ongoing distraction of a court case which made committing the group to working with at risk young people difficult. This time was used to work on constructing the programs that would form the basis for the foundation’s activities in the future. Throughout this time many small fundraising and community awareness programs were undertaken. These activities to the outsider appeared to be just that, fundraising, however we knew that they were a way to keep Sam’s friends engaged. The pool of young people helping us, nearly 200 aged 17 – 21, weren’t delivering phone books or selling merchandise purely for fundraising. They were doing this for Sam, their mate. They did everything with passion, they managed to laugh, share stories of fun times and pick each other up when they were down. While going through such a traumatic time it was incredibly therapeutic for everybody involved. Purpose is a powerful thing. In May 2009 we became involved in the Sturt Bluelight Program, a SAPOL initiative, at Darlington Primary School. We attended their Life Skills Camp held at Echunga where a group of grade 7 students at risk of disengaging or of becoming involved in anti social behavior were being mentored by SAPOL Crime Prevention Officers. These young men aged 12-14 were participating in activities which challenged their thinking, encouraged them to engage and to build team spirit.

Three of Sam’s friends were exposed to mentoring for the first time. They joined in with the activities and shared their feelings about the impact of violence in their lives, the sense of loss and how their lives had been changed. Questions came from the audience with our volunteers being open and honest in their responses. As we left Luke, one of Sam’s best mates, said “We need to be involved with these kids all of the time. It won’t work just to visit once.” So the idea of mentoring and ongoing involvement with at risk young people in programs using our volunteers was born. Our programs; Impact, Connect and Party Wise were all named by our youth volunteers, their concepts and structure all built with the assistance of our youth volunteers and most importantly involve our youth volunteers. Sam’s friends are fundamental to our existence and vital as the foundation moves forward. When we talk to adult groups, colleagues and other organizations we often get asked do we have other children at home. Neil has a daughter, Sheree, she is 25, our Treasurer, and has been involved in foundation activities since the inception. Sam was the only child we had together. We now have dozens of children. All of Sam’s friends who we love, protect and support like our own children. We wouldn’t have gotten through this without their energy, humor, love and commitment to Sam.

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It is with great pride and a sense of enormous satisfaction that we look over our achievements of the last 12 months.

This period has been one of enormous growth and development for the foundation with many of our ideas and plans coming to fruition on a background of hard work and determination to succeed. Pivotal to the success of our organization was the decision to network with other more established youth organizations and government departments. With a vision and a plan in mind we met with about 20 professionals working in the youth sector and asked them for guidance and support in relation to the targeting of our programs. The youth sector is responsive and adaptive to the ever changing needs of our youth, we realized how important it is to work collaboratively and tap into the expertise that is already in place.

We have become regular attendees at youth network meetings including the SA Youth Mentoring Network, where we have been active in planning the National Youth Mentoring Week Celebrations to be held at the end of October 2010. Another key collaboration, was our participation in the organizing committee for the Onkaparinga City Council Youth Week celebrations, during the early part of 2010. These, and other relationships, are important in terms of setting a standard for our future participation in the youth sector.

The planning and construction of the three core programs in collaboration with our young people has been extremely rewarding. With all of them now in full swing, it is satisfying to reflect on the outcomes we have achieved. In terms of progressing these programs, we have been busy planning and holding discussions with key partners, inclusive of, teachers, youth workers and program partners. Program highlights from the last 12 months include:

35 Impact Presentations completed since March 1st 2010 to predominantly young people in our community who now have a better understanding of the impact of violent behavior and will share this story with their peers.

Participating in the eXtreme Choices Program run for Department of Families and Communities residential care clients. Establishing working relationship with facility Supervisors and Senior Youth Practitioners.

Engaging 5 Department of Families and Communities’ clients, with local football clubs where they previously weren’t playing, providing them with the clothing, funding and support they needed to become involved, the importantly seeing smiles on their faces.

Providing training to more than 25 mentors in Southern Football League clubs so they are more able to provide support and assistance to young people in their club when in need.

Watching Reynella East High School students perform the Party Wise Play that was so well received by the community.

Matching our youth mentors with at risk Year 7 students and hearing of the positive effects they are having on their transition to high school.

Securing a number of grants.

Formalization of policies which protect our volunteers and underpin the foundation’s practice, so that we are not only accountable, but able to support standards set by the government in relation to child protection.

Moving into office space at Reynella Youth Enterprise where we are able to separate work from home and have the opportunity to be involved in a number of community programs.

Our Executive and General Committees have shown enormous dedication and commitment over the past year and we would like to say an enormous thank you to each and every one of them. Throughout this year we have put a lot of thought into our future planning and have consulted a number of community leaders for advice in terms of the structure which best fits us in our mission as a harm prevention charity. In 2011 we will appoint our Inaugural Board of Directors. The board will consist of 7 voting members and will be made up predominantly of people who have served us as key advisors over the past 2 years. The Executive Committee will become our Organizing Committee with the General Committee unchanged. This structural evolution is important in relation to our ability to demonstrate accountable practice, respond to the dynamic nature of the youth sector, manage our programs and to generate accurate, timely reports. Our core business will continue to be aimed at helping young people that are highly vulnerable and at risk. Providing them with opportunities to connect to the community, positive role models and solid examples to live by will help them to live positive, fulfilled lives and prevent them from harm. We are committed to making a difference and with this solid structure and the support of our incredible volunteers this is indeed possible.

Nat Cook & Neil Davis 9

In our journey to become a Tax Deductable Charity on the Harm Prevention Register we have refined our target groups and more clearly defined the activities which really make a difference in their lives. The main objectives of our program activities surround the prevention of harm due to behaviours, individual and community attitudes and the lack of support to groups highest at risk.

IMPACT

We initially outlined our planned programs some 18 months ago and these outlines have provided a solid foundation to build on. With the implementation of all three programs in the past 12 months we have some notable outcomes and have received feedback which confirms our direction.

The inclusion as a Preferred Provider of Mentoring and Youth Development Programs as part of the ICANS (Innovative Community Action Networks) panel governed by the SA Education Department has been an enormous achievement in terms of our ability to implement programs statewide in our schools. Since March 2010 the Foundation has presented Impact in 35 locations from Elizabeth, Murray Bridge to McLaren Vale and Aldinga. The audiences have varied in age from 10 to 70 something with the main age group being 12 – 15. The venues have ranged from schools, outside learning facilities to sporting, community and business groups. The Impact program aims to raise awareness of the consequences of risky behaviours and the importance of safe choices. The presentation uses the events leading to the loss of Sam’s life as a basis for discussion. While the foundation believes all young people are at risk of suffering the consequences of violent and antisocial behaviours during the course of their transition to adulthood it is clear that there are some groups in the community who are at higher risk. These groups have certainly been targeted via the relationship developed with DFC and working with young people in Juvenile Justice Programs and learning programs outside of mainstream schooling has proven to be extremely successful.

The powerful nature of the presentations has been well received by mainstream students with many of them contacting us and committing to share the story with their friends in the hope that this knowledge will change attitudes, alter behaviour and make their community a safe place. Lesson plans for all ages have been developed for before and after the presentations as a tool to further unpack decision making and choices such as the effect of alcohol and drugs. The presentation combined with these workshops will form part of the foundation’s ICANS Youth Development Program.

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Hi guys, I just wanted to say thankyou for all your work! I just picked up my son from Volt at Aldinga and my 12 year old son told me you had been to talk to them! You have provided an amazing opportunity to talk with my son! You made a huge impact on him and me! From one parent to another Thankyou Kristen

TESTIMONIALS

Cavan Training Centre is a secure care facility for young male offenders aged 15 to 18 years. A wide range of rehabilitation programs are delivered annually to residents. One program named Victim Awareness aims at raising insight into the effects of offending on victims. Cavan has been fortunate that Neil and Natalie from the Sammy D Foundation have come out to the centre on several occasions to deliver a moving and powerful presentation to the residents. Many residents have commented on the courage both Neil and Natalie have shown coming into the centre and are far more aware of the implications of acting impulsively in conflict situations. Many thanks to Neil and Natalie for their continuing support of the Victim Awareness Program during 2010. G Cooper Social Worker Cavan Training Centre

I would just like to say that when you came to Parafield

Gardens High, the speech you gave had a very big impact on most students, including me, I use to be the violent type that would hit people etc, but after that knowing that one punch can kill, it really did open my eyes, its turned me off from

even watching a fight now...so I just wanted to say thank you and that I‟m pretty sure that

Sam, would be really proud of you and Neil.

I don't need to know anything because you showed me everything I

needed to know

Kelsey Ward

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RESULTS Evaluations are conducted at the end of every session and the following graphs highlight the success that we are experiencing in terms of attitude change. Full evaluation data is available for viewing on the foundation website.

Supported by:

The foundation was successful in securing funding from the Attorney General’s Department in the 2010 Crime Prevention and Community Safety Grants. This funding has been used to purchase state of the art multimedia equipment including projector, laptop, screen, audio equipment and has also funded some travel expenses, printing costs and a camera. The equipment will be a part of the program for years to come.

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CONNECT - ENCOURAGE, MOTIVATE, REWARD

Working with community organizations and schools the Connect program is based on working toward social inclusion outcomes supported by research that shows involvement in well-structured activities can have positive developmental and social impact, reduce incidence of drug and alcohol addiction and improve community engagement.

Young at risk youth have been connected to community organizations, sporting clubs and programs which promote engagement and positive life choices. We have been contacted by DFC caseworkers with juvenile justice and guardianship clients that wanted to play football. Four boys aged 10 – 12 were placed with Smithfield Football Club and a 12 year old boy was placed with Marion Football Club. Within a week all of these boys were kitted out and played their first game. While not all of the boys completed the season they have all shown a change in their behaviour and importantly have been given the opportunity to establish friendships, connect with positive adult role models and engage in a community environment.

Following our success in obtaining funding in Round 29 of Community Benefits SA from DFC we have structured a Peer Support Program to be implemented in Families SA Accommodation over the next 12 months. The clients that live in these facilities are under Guardianship of the Minister, have difficulty establishing relationships outside of care and face enormous barriers to community engagement. The core aims of the program include raising awareness of harm causing behaviours and their consequences, facilitating mentoring relationships and providing opportunities to build peer relationships in a supportive and fun activity based environment. Volunteer mentors will visit all of the accommodation facilities during the course of the program but the focus will be on forming solid relationships with the young people that reside at Sturt and Noarlunga facilities.

...The Foundation‟s motivation is equalled if not surpassed by

their ability to get things done. When dealing with at

risk young people, timely delivery is essential and the

Foundation‟s ability to fulfil its aims is impressive. My

experience to date is that they „walk the talk‟. From the initial

meeting, everything verbally committed to the EXtreme

Choices program was delivered...

Mel - DFC

Dean Brogan and the Port Adelaide Football Club support the Connect Program.

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On the 18th and 19th of September I was able to go along on a Blue Light Living Skills camp with 21 year 7 girls from Darlington Primary School as a mentor. The camp focuses on trust and team building exercises that involve stepping outside your comfort zone and doing something that you wouldn‟t normally do. I was given the chance to support them in the activities that involved abseiling, obstacles and a night walk that involved going down a mine shaft in the dark. Whilst on the camp I did a talk on goal setting, in which I explained how to set your goals and how to go about achieving them, and ran an exercise session first thing on the Sunday morning. I found going to the camp to be a very rewarding experience, being only two years older than the girls. I was able to talk to them easily and got along with them well. The mentoring training ran by the Sammy D foundation defiantly helped me with the skills I needed to be able to talk to the girls as a friend and a mentor.

Johanna Kemplay-Hill

Youth Mentor

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Connect Mentoring in schools commenced in July this year. Following our Impact presentation at Warradale Primary School, who were participating in the Sturt Blue Light Living Skills Program, we were asked to provide mentoring support to year 7 students who were at risk of struggling in their transition to high school due to their behaviour and/or situation. This involvement has provided the foundation with an opportunity to establish procedure and policy to support the program which will be ongoing as part of the ICANS activities in schools. The Sammy D Foundation has formed a partnership with a number of Football Clubs including Happy Valley, Christies Beach, Pt Noarlunga and Noarlunga. Across these clubs 25 mentors have been provided with training in the areas of Mandatory Notification (RAN) and mentoring. The skills in respect to

listening, observing, advising and guidance are enormously valuable in the club environment where not all young people come from a background of solid family structure and support. Mentors facilitate a trusting relationship where young people are made to feel at ease and comfortable when sharing their thoughts and experiences. Club mentors are encouraged to spend time before/after training or games with their mentees and offer opportunity to share any troubles or problems they might be experiencing. Mentors are equipped with skills to help them recognize changes in behavior and attendance which might be a clue to problems or situational crisis.

“After completing the Sammy D Mentoring Program we were given the opportunity to mentor a small group of young girls in the local community.

Being a part of the Sammy D Mentoring Program allows us to meet with the girls on a weekly basis and enjoy activities including beading and cooking.

Guiding the girls to have a positive impact in the community and assisting them in making appropriate and safe decisions for the future is a privilege and has been a life changing experience.”

Jess Sanderson- Youth Mentor

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THE PROGRAM SO FAR…. Over the past four months, three Year 7 girls have been taking part in various activities once a week. All activities are planned and carried out by the mentors. These activities include:

Cooking Journal writing Sport Arts and crafts Excursions Social skills program

All activities were developed in conjunction with the mentor and the mentees.

THE BENEFITS OF THIS PROGRAM…

From a teacher‟s point of perspective, I have seen many benefits of this program so far.

Firstly, the girls were given a journal to write in and share with their mentor if they wanted to. This encourages the girls to jot down anything that may be concerning them and allows them to get issues off of their chest. I also believe that through this process of journal writing, the girls have the opportunity to „think before they act‟. This is vital as this has been an ongoing issue for each of the girls involved.

The mentors are able to show their mentees a different point of view. For girls of this age, they tend to „listen‟ or more so „hear‟, what a person who is closer to their age is saying as they are able to see their mentor in their situation.

Expose the girls to previously unexposed ideas and opportunities Teaches the mentees to build trust Improves self esteem and self efficacy Provides support for new behaviors, attitudes and ambitions Increased communication skills Better relationships with teachers and family members Someone to confide in and look up to. Have an adult, other than staff, show reliability and consistency The students are interacting with adults who show respect for young people. Someone to listen to them

As a teacher, I believe this program has been highly beneficial for all three girls. The girls have begun to work towards their outcomes. Finally, I thought I would share with you an example of the commitment of the mentors: During the school holidays, one of the mentees‟ birthdays fell on a Saturday. So before the holidays, her mentor had arranged to pick her up and go and do something „special‟ True to her word, her mentor collected her and took her out bowling and shopping. I can definitely say that when it came to discussing highlights of the holidays and the year so far, this particular mentee stated that her mentor remembering her birthday and taking her out was not only her highlight for the holidays and year seven, and in her own words „it was the highlight of everything I can ever remember!‟

Kallie Millar Warradale Primary School Teacher

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PARTY WISE

Fundamental to the harm prevention activities of the foundation Party Wise is vital in terms of its key objective to raise awareness of the risks of youth culture and the behaviour that is openly displayed at both private and public gatherings. Young people and their families need to be supported and educated regarding safe partying practices and the perils they face if these are not followed.

Thanks to Kim Stewart a Party Wise play has been fully scripted which uses the events surrounding Sam’s death as a starting point for demonstration and discussion of safe choices when planning and implementing parties in the home where young people attend. This year students from Reynella East High School developed, rehearsed and performed the play under the guidance of Kate Loizi. During Youth week the play was performed at the Hopgood Theatre to an audience of school students and adults. Feedback regarding the script, set, costumes and performances was given and provided the actors and support staff with the opportunity to make changes to improve it. The play has since been performed and received really positively. The interactive discussion between sets will develop in time and we hope to further develop the use of this play as a tool for learning. Our theme for Party Wise is “Don’t be the idiot”. With a logo and T-shirt designed by Nat we hope to get the message across to everyone. “Don’t be the idiot” that uses violence, “Don’t be the idiot” that spoils the night for everyone else. We have worn theses shirts at a few of our events and have had some very positive feedback about the logo and the message.

We will be holding our first Party Wise forum in November at Mount Barker. This collaborative panel approach is new for the foundation and is a pilot for a program to be run next year. The panel of people from youth, health and crime prevention backgrounds will present their ideas regarding parties, risks and strategies then be available to take questions from the audience made up of teenagers and their parents. Future plans will include the development of resources to use when planning parties and an advertising campaign. Our volunteer recruitment TV advertisement can be readily adapted to form the basis of this campaign

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Our progress and work to date would not be possible without the support of other likeminded networks and organisations. The ability to access small grants is also essential to not only our work but our capacity to support our volunteers. These are some of the organisations and networks to which we say thank you.

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An organisation is defined by the quality of the people that represent them. In our case we are blessed to be supported by a group of some 200 plus volunteers with the majority aged 17 – 21.

This group work tirelessly to support not only the foundation’s programs but to help raise the funds that we need to run them. As a group these dedicated people contributed a total of 6389 volunteer hours to the foundation in the last financial year – this commitment has not slowed. Over the past 12 months we have successfully run two Rox-On Events – Reminisce and A Night To Sparkle, the annual Comedy Gala and Golf Day in addition to attending many community events including White Ribbon Day at Port Noarlunga Football Club, the Willunga Almond Blossom Festival and the SFL Grand Final. A group of our more energetic volunteers even participated in the Sunday Mail City-to-Bay Fun Run, which was a success that we intend to build on for next year in terms of participation and promotion of Party Wise. Whilst everybody’s contributions are valued and every hour volunteered is important to us, we believe it is important to recognise volunteer contributions through a rewards program. The following Honour Roll highlights the achievements of some of our volunteers.

200 HOURS 50 HOURS Aimee Mitchell Craige Mathews Nicky Kerr Elle Galpin Jackson Kerr 100 HOURS Jarrod Daish Jess Sanderson Athan Nikas Mitchell Reed Chris Reed Phil Reed Deb Mathews Peta McCance Julie Cook Kerrylea Harper Luke Mathews Matt Verrall Peter Hislop Sheree Davis Stewie Campbell

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Importantly this year our volunteers have transitioned from undertaking only fundraising, event, promotional and administrative functions to becoming trained mentors, respected role models and program participants. In the past 12 months 25 of our volunteers have undertaken mentoring training and 20 have undertaken Mandatory Notification Training (RAN). We have provided 30 with National Police Certificates and are currently arranging Working with Children checks through Families SA. All of the education that our volunteers receive will not only

provide them the skills necessary to work with high risk young people but they are transportable skills which they can use in their places of employment, sporting clubs and family life in general.

While building our capacity to implement our programs we have worked on a philosophy of upskilling our volunteers with the ability to train others rather than generically enrolling all of our volunteers in external training programs. This sees volunteers, both young and not so young, able to train others in the organization in areas such as RAN. Janine Hook is also now undertaking Cert IV in Training and Assessment. Operating like this has enormous benefits in terms of our capacity, volunteer reward and satisfaction. Our training in the near future will include Response to Challenging Behaviours and Emergency First Aid. We are enormously proud of and thankful of the effort of all of our volunteers. They are the life of the foundation and provide us with constant feelings of satisfaction and pleasure as we watch them go about their work. Volunteers for us are more than

volunteers they are friends. We welcome all new volunteers who would like to get involved and help us to make a difference in the community. Please visit the foundation website for further information on how to get involved.

Through the support of some funding from the Office for Volunteers – Community Voices Program, students from Flinders University have produced a television commercial aimed at volunteer recruitment. We are extremely grateful for the direction taken by the producers and the result is a volunteer recruitment commercial with a powerful message of anti-violence. We have had a very positive response to the commercial and more people are getting involved each day by volunteering.

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THE LOSS OF SAM HAD A MASSIVE EFFECT ON ME. However, seeing the impact it had on the people I love effected me in an ever deeper way. When I first heard about the idea for the Sammy D Foundation and the plans they had I was determined to be a part of that and have a chance to stop other people suffering in the way some of my closest friends had. 2 years and over 200 hours volunteering later, I am still as committed as ever to the cause.

At first volunteering was just in the way of having fun and being involved in simple fundraising events, selling merchandise, collecting donations at local football games and delivering yellow pages. Now that I think back, it was a great way for everyone to deal with what happened and remember Sam in a positive way. A year later, when everyone had come to better terms with Sam‟s passing, it became a realisation to many that it was time to start taking a more serious approach; particularly Nat and Neil.

The most meaningful experiences I have participated in with the Sammy D Foundation so far are the Impact presentations. The first Impact presentation I took part in was in May 2009, at a Life Skills Camp with a group of „at risk‟ Darlington Primary School students at Echunga. Talking about Sam‟s death and the effect it had on myself and others, to a group of strangers, made me rather nervous. But I walked away from that experience finding it one of the most rewarding experiences of my life so far. I never thought just talking with some kids and having lunch with them would make a difference. I know my own attention span was lacking during school so seeing a group of year 7 kids pay complete attention for that amount of time definitely showed me that we really could make a difference and were getting a message across.

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I have participated in many Impact presentations since then, and still find them to be as rewarding as ever. As hard as talking about Sam‟s death may be sometimes, the strength Nat and Neil show help me to keep a positive outlook. To see the effect that it has on people, seeing people who didn‟t even know Sam cry and show real emotion during the presentations, and to see that we‟re getting Sam‟s message across, always makes it more than worthwhile.

Although volunteering is hard sometimes due to my work and social life, I

still try to put as much time into the Sammy D Foundation as I can, because

I believe in the cause now more than ever and am greatly looking forward to

all the other activates that are being set in motion for the future. Although I

volunteer for the Foundation to help others, it has become clear at how

much the Foundation and all those involved, especially Nat and Neil, have

helped me grow as a person. I truly believe that the Sammy D Foundation is

Sam‟s voice, a voice that must be heard, and that it‟s making a difference

for everyone involved, including the volunteers.

Aimee Mitchell

Volunteer - 200 Hours

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The foundation holds three major events each year; a Rox-On Event, Comedy Gala and Corporate Golf Day. The support of local businesses is vital to the success of these events.

Rox-On Events ‘Rox-on’ is the name that was first used for the foundation’s Community Launch in 2008. Since that time Rox-On Events has become the brand for foundation events specifically steered by our young people. At all of these events we promote the Party-Wise message of safe partying by playing a DVD of positive choice messages throughout the evening. 2010 saw two Rox-On events held; Reminisce at HQ and A Night To Sparkle at the S-Bar.

Reminisce Reminisce was held in March 2010 and was driven by Jess Sanderson and Chris McPhee. Jess and Chris came up with the event as a way to honour not only Sam but another good mate; Dan Wilde. With a huge line up of local, national and international DJs all giving their time to perform on the night, it was a huge success with over 300 people coming along to support the foundation.

A Night to Sparkle

Kerrylea Harper came to us with an idea to have a night where everyone could dress up, have a great time and raise funds for the foundation at the same time. A Night to Sparkle Cocktail Party was an event held at the S-Bar and was once again supported by some of our great friends and DJs; Bollocks Deejays, Matt Abstrax and DJ Devious.

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Comedy Gala The Comedy Gala is an event that we are very proud of. The foundation is fortunate to be supported by some of the top comedians in the business and this year saw another strong line-up. 350 people joined us at the Wayville Showground’s Ridley Pavilion and were treated to some great entertainment by local, national and international artists, all of whom perform for the foundation because they believe in its mission.

The event was emceed by Damian Callinan, with performances from Arj Barker, Hannah Gadsby, Tom Gleeson, Mark Trenwith and Wil Anderson, as well as local performers; Alex Williamson and Brian Pritchard. The next Comedy Gala will be held on the 27th February 2011 and will be promoted in the Fringe Guide.

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Corporate Golf Day The annual Sammy D Foundation Corporate Golf Day is held at Thaxted Park Golf Course, Woodcroft. This year’s event was a huge success with 19 teams joining us on what turned out to be a beautiful day. The organising committee worked tirelessly to put together a great day however we would not have had such success without the support of local business. Darren Lehmann emceed the lunchtime entertainment for the second year running and kept everyone in fits of laughter with stories and tall tales from his cricketing past. Through his great talents as an auctioneer, we managed to raise over $3,000 on auction items to contribute to funds

raised that will be used to support our program activities. Congratulations to this year’s winners Num-Nums, who won by the narrowest of margins in what turned out to be a very close competition. The fantastic, regular support shown by local businesses such as Ace Tree and Stump, Reynella Hyundai and Charmina Indian Restaurants was added to this year by support from C-Coffee, Subway and Lancer Beverage Systems. A huge thank you to all that attended and made the event such a success and we look forward to seeing you all again next

year, with many new faces. Hold the date: Friday, 21st October 2011 when we will return to Thaxted Park.

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Sammy D Foundation

Onkaparinga Youth Centre - Reynella Ph: 8387 5577

P O Box 54 Woodcroft SA 5162

Nat - 0412 400 620

nat@sammydfoundation.org.au

www.sammydfoundation.org.au