The 2011 Presidents Black Tie Dinner was held on Friday 21^st October with the beneficiaries being All Hallows Parish School. Club Five Dock RSL and All Hallows Parish School is excited to announce that the night was a huge success with $25,000 raised on the night.

This year’s theme was Big Band Swing. The room looked amazing, the food exquisite and the atmosphere swung with a great performance by the Velvet Set.

The night started off with the All Hallows Choir putting on a fantastic performance singing to their hearts content.

President Harry McKinnon welcomed all distinguished guests and was delighted to continue the plight to improve facilities for local schools within the Five Dock Inner West area.

CEO Ken Diaz announced that since the event's inception in 1992 Club Five Dock RSL has raised in excess of $400,000 for local schools and communities in need of support in improving their facilities.

The generosity of our local business partners had been overwhelming with many businesses coming on board in donating prizes and sponsorship for our fund-raising raffles and balloon prizes.

Mr Paul Wilson, Principal of All Hallows Parish School was presented with the $25,000 cheque and summed up in his speech "The community of All Hallows Parish School want to acknowledge the generosity and support of Club Five Dock RSL, its members and sponsors. The proceeds from the President's Black Tie Dinner are going towards our playground redevelopment that we were only dreaming about before now.

This donation of $25 000 has enabled us to fast track our plans to begin works at the end of this year. Over 70 parents and staff attended the evening in full support of event knowing full well how many raffles we would have to hold to make this amount of money. The total cost of the playground redevelopment will be around $75 000 with 50% funds already raised by the All Hallows P&F.

The donation from Club Five Dock RSL has meant the project can commence at the end of the year in time for 2012 school year. On behalf of the 412 students and their families I would like to thank Club Five Dock RSL, in particular Harry, Ken and Marisa Pinna (Events manager) for a well-organised and enjoyable evening.”

A big thank you to all those that donated and attended.

 

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Our Own Environment Committee

Club Five Dock RSL recognises that effective environmental management is an important part of successfully undertaking our role in the Community and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Clubs capability and growth in the Five Dock area.

Club Five Dock RSL understands its responsibilities in environmental management and practice and is committed to complying with Commonwealth and State environmental legislation and regulations.

At the Clubs’ Strategic Planning In July 2010, it was agreed to forming the Environment Sub Committee to develop policy and procedures that  demonstrates Club Five Dock RSL’s strong commitment to managing and improving its environmental performance through a planned approach and communicating a clear environmental vision to the Community 

"Club Five Dock RSL is a leader in sustainable environmental management and practice to provide the best family friendly club" 

Helping those in need

Club Five Dock RSL prides itself on assisting those in need; ensuring that they make a difference within the community through charity involvement.

The Club’s Board of Directors are excited to announce the total funds distributed this year exceeded $220,000 and $114,000 were shared between 16 local organiations within the Community Development Support Expenditure scheme (CDSE).

Club Five Dock RSL applauds the extraordinary work carried out by our local community organisations and schools.  The Club is very proud to support each and every one of these organisations for their important work in the community.

Below are a few testimonials on how the funding has helped benefiting organiations.

Mothers Moving Forward

Mothers Moving Forward is an organisation that will help single mothers move forward with their lives after a family breakdown. The founder, Vicki Morrison, says the organisation will help single mothers manage their finances, find work, look after the emotional wellbeing of their kids and improve their confidence and self esteem. The funding by Club Five Dock RSL will help establish a website, assist with research on the issue and the development of a book. “The funding is a wonderful contribution by Club Five Dock to help us establish a community based website that will provide education, employment services and local community support groups for single mothers. It will also assist our continued research into improving the welfare of single mothers and their children and assist in the development of a book that will help guide them on a daily basis.” Vicki says that funding is vital in order for the organisation to support single mothers to “truly create a life they love” and create much needed community support to assist them move on with their lives. If you would like to support Mothers Moving Forward or be involved in its development, please email Vicki Morrison at MothersMovingForward@gmail.com

 Lucas Gardens School

Lucas Gardens School provides a range of programs for students with intellectual and physical disabilities. Relieving Principle Jo-Ann Gardiner says the grant will be used to complete an outdoor playground, “The funding will mean that our playground will have shading and more accessible equipment for our students, which will enhance their play and their social skills because they’ll be able to get out there and be in the playground across all weathers whereas at the moment they have been restricted to certain times.” Lucas Gardens School has also received ten iPads to place in the classrooms allowing the students to improve and develop their communication, sensory and social skills. “Their very generous donations make the education and the welfare of our students possible,“ said Ms Gardiner.  

Abbotsford Public School

Mr Peter Widders principle of Abbotsford Public school says the grant received by Club Five Dock will be used to specifically develop outdoor play equipments for the students to provide additional sporting activities during their lunch breaks and sports classes. “Phase one will finish hopefully by the end of this year and children can use it at lunchtimes and also for their sport and fitness activities all through the week,” said Mr Widders.

Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundations

The Bridge for Asylum seekers Foundation aims to help asylum seekers who are waiting for decisions on their protection applications. One of their projects is designed to give those who are living in the community without an income some financial assistance to cover food, clothing, health care and transport costs. “The funding is going to be used specifically to assist asylum seekers without any other financial means with their basic living costs, so it will provide them with a very basic income,” said Ms Janice Thompson, one of the management committee members. Ms Thompson who has been involved with this project for 5 years also says that this is an ongoing project which will continue to support many asylum seekers, “The assistance that we’re getting from the Club Five Dock has been superb, it’s been ongoing and is very much appreciated.”

Cabarita – Mortlake Kindergarten

Iron Cove RSL Day Club

Iron Cove RSL Day Club is for the frail aged and elderly people. It is run by volunteers and provides entertainment, gentle exercises, mental stimulation, socialisation, morning tea and lunch for socially isolated seniors. Mrs Bessie Winfield treasurer of this organisation for over nine years says the program is beneficial for the members, “It helps to get them out of the house where maybe they might not go out and bond with other people and be able to talk to them and integrate with them.” The funding will be used to contribute to the costs of the hall, the Drummoyne Community Centre and the community bus. “We do this year after year and everybody is just so happy we’ve had members for quite a few years...that’s how good the grant is to us that it enables these people to come.”

Concord West Rhodes

Vera Jenkins from Concord West Rhodes Preschool says the CDSE grant given by Club Five Dock will help provide financial support for a special needs teacher who is needed for a special needs child at the Preschool. “We do get some money for the special needs teacher from SCAN (Supporting Children with Additional Needs) but we also need extra money for the special needs teacher,” she says.  “We have a particular way of working with special needs children here; we work on getting their sensory needs in sync.”

 Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc

The aim of the Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc is to promote embroidery as an art form and as a recreational activity. One of the members of the management committee, Margaret Gollan, says that the grant provided by Club Five Dock will be used to help “enable us to have good communications with our members,” by purchasing a new photocopier. Although headquarters of the organisation is located in Concord West, groups from all over Sydney meet there. Margaret says their vision is to educate people about the whole technique of embroidery, which they’re currently fulfilling by running courses and correspondence classes in country areas. “By having the correspondence courses it enables country members to be able to access those educational programs on an ongoing basis rather than the rare occasions when they’re travelling.” She says the funding for the photocopier will allow them to partake in the usual organisational communication activities such as printing off notes and minutes of meetings.  

Shine for Kids

Shine for Kids Cooperative Ltd is an organisation that provides support and help to children with an incarcerated parent. The manager for fundraising, marketing and communications, Victor Ma, says that they try to “help children reach their full potential through this unfortunate phase in their life and help reduce the cycle of intergenerational incarceration”. The grant from Club Five Dock will be geared towards three areas. These include improving the Child and Family Centres that are located in the correctional facilities, which aim to provide a better, child- friendly environment for the children. Funding will also go towards Child and Parent Activity Days, where children and their incarcerated parent spend time doing arts and crafts, playing chess and drawing. Victor says this time is important to strengthen the bond between parent and child. “It is important that the child gets to keep up with the relationship with the incarcerated parent.” Thirdly, funding will also go towards the Supported Transport Program which transports families to and from correctional centres. Funding is essential to help the families, Victor says. “It’s vital. Without funding we would not be able to provide the support we provide to these children and their families.”

 The Drummoyne Community Centre

The Drummoyne Community Centre is a “neighbourhood come community centre for the City of Canada Bay area,” manager Roslyn Lance says. The centre provides classes, group activities and services for both young and elderly people.  Roslyn says the vision of the centre is to have “people connecting more, so it’s a safe inclusive community that enables all of the residents to share a vibrant, cultural life”. The Club Five Dock grant will be geared towards a daytime community choir, which she says is an avenue to achieve the centre’s vision. This non-auditioning choir will hopefully encourage people who can’t make the existing evening choir to get together and connect with others.  Roslyn says that funding is essential in allowing them to help run their services. “We would like to thank Club Five Dock for their support of both the community evening choir and the daytime community choir, because it has been wonderful in allowing this new project to happen, and we do appreciate the partnership,” she says 

The Special Olympics Sydney Inner West

The Special Olympics Sydney Inner West organisation provides a range of services for those in the area with an intellectual disability, including regular sporting opportunities. The fundraising coordinator, Aimee Purcell, says the completely volunteer-run organisation does not receive any government funding, and so applies for grants. She says the grant from Club Five Dock will mostly go to the football program, which includes a weekly training session for teenagers who mostly have autism. “It’s quite expensive to run, which is why we applied for the grant,” she says. Aimee believes that funding is extremely important in order to fulfil Special Olympics’ vision to expand, especially towards sports. “Some of these families can’t really afford to pay what it would actually cost so the funding is a vital part of it.”

THE CITY2SURF MADE WAVES AT CLUB FIVE DOCK RSL!

Sunday, 14 August 2011, thousands of participants joined the City2Surf fun run and treked 14km from Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach in an effort to raise funds for their nominated charities.

Club Five Dock RSL never liked to miss out on the fun so the Clubs staff joined forces with Local community member Terry Speranza and her Lupus Butterflies team.

CEO Ken Diaz and number of directors first met Terry Speranza at the 2011 Lupus Gala Dinner and were moved by her cause. Terri who was diagnosed with Lupus 4 years ago has walked in the City2Surf for the past 3 years raising over $30,000 for the Lupus Association. This year Terri’s ‘Lupus Butterflies team’ & Club Five Dock RSL pushed the limits in raising money for Lupus Association.

Terry had a few special words to mention after the race.

Dear Family, Friends and Club Five Dock.

Well another year down!!!! 4 years on and let me tell you it doesn’t get any easier! But it certainly gets bigger .Let me start by thanking my amazing team, not only did you walk/run the 14km for Lupus but you also put yourselves out there to raise money for our hero page which to date is sitting at $11.566.  Money was also collected on the day by Jeremy Pollicina and Robert Pearce at the BBQ, a whopping $820, well done and thank you.

We started the morning meeting in Hyde Park. The sea of people wearing orange and holding lupus balloons looked AMAZING! It was so cool to see so many of them excited and pumped, wearing their Lupus gear so proudly .We managed to get a lot of media attention, even getting the C2S announcer making mention that he sees Lupus in the crowd. You couldn’t miss us with a sea of orange helium balloons. Although the day’s weather started slightly gloomy and wet, it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and the rain stayed away.

Our team staggered in to camp Lupus at all different times. We had some serious runners!!!! And some serious walkers!!!! We even had some who took advantage of the Golden Sheaf Hotel along the way (won’t mention any names). But most importantly is everyone that started at Hyde Park, finished at Bondi Beach. I’m truly so proud of the first timers who got through it.

Thank you to our kind volunteers who cooked up a storm at Bondi beach to feed our team. Nothing like a sausage sizzle after 14kms. Thanks to Robert Pearce and his son Angus and also Pat Thirlwell and her sister Jan, for looking after our team when we got to Bondi. None of this is possible without the kind people who donate their services and products to us. They include - Moree’s Meats North Strathfield (donated 350 sausages) - Trims Fresh Leichhardt (donated 2 boxes of oranges) - Fresh and Tasty Bakery, Seven Hills (donated 100 bread rolls) and of course our biggest supporters Club Five Dock R.S.L, who donated all of the drinks.

Not only did Club Five Dock put a team of 25 participates together to walk for Lupus, they also set up their own Hero page to raise money for us which to date is sitting on over $1000. Also Lupus donation buckets and flyers were placed around the club which continues to raise awareness.

Credit, praise and thanks go to the AMAZING Shelly Casey, who is the driving force behind her Club Five Dock C2S team. Thank you to Ken Diaz, CEO of Club Five Dock RSL, who most kindly selected Lupus as the Association of whom his staff would walk for. To all the Club Five Dock staff C2S team, I thank you dearly for your involvement and proud support of the Lupus cause.

Thank you to our Ausgrid participants, Nick, Chris, Joe, Jamie and Peter. For their involvement in the Lupus C2S, Ausgrid, through its Community Care Program has pledged a total of $1500.00 to the Lupus Association.

Also a big thank you to our photographer on the day Mr Chris Philips. We have some great shots to feature in our Spring Newsletter.

Last but not least I have to thank my Husband Nick Speranza. Without his help, I couldn’t have pulled off such a successful day. He helped throughout the C2S campaign with many things. Nick left home at 5am on the cold raining morning of the race to take all the BBQ gear down to Bondi Beach to be met by Robert and Wayne Davis, and set up Marquees and everything else that needed to be done. Nick, without you the day wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. Your dedication to me and my passion to raise awareness and money for the Association is exceptional. I loved walking along side you and our 3 beautiful children.

My sincere appreciation to all of our supporters who donated to my Lupus hero page. We also have 5 other active Lupus C2S hero pages raising money.

I thank you all for doing so well and hope you enjoyed the event.

God willing I’ll be back in 2012.

Thanking you always, yours in health

Terri Speranza

Lupus Butterflies City to Surf Co-Coordinator.