THE 13th annual Casey Cardinia Foundation Charity Dinner has been hailed a huge success.
Foundation chairman Paul Thomas was thrilled with the event, attended by 250 people at the Cardinia Cultural Centre on Friday 14 October.
“The room looked better than it has before, people had a great time and, most importantly, we raised significant funds to be used by local community groups across the Casey Cardinia Region,” he said.
“It is the most important fundraising activity the foundation participates in and our thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to making it a huge success.”
Mr Thomas said it was great to be able to announce that the foundation had granted over $33,000 to local groups, including nine different organisations, which takes the total contribution to over $443,000 in the history of the foundation.
The projects funded this year included the Cranbourne Regional Uniting Church Food Truck, which helps the hungry and homeless; Connections UnitingCare, offering support services to children in Out of Home Care due to concerns over child abuse and neglect; Communities that Care for the delivery of a Mental Health First Aid program in secondary schools; Beyond Disability, to help keep veterans socially connected and able to use online systems for support; Echo, for the development of a Ranges Emergency Recovery Hub, to register and help those displaced in an emergency situation; Pakenham Scouts, for the purchase of new tents to address the increase in female youth membership; Garfield Scouts, to support the development of a non-residential training venue to service future leaders; the Cranbourne Casey Men’s Shed, to support the purchase of dust extractors to provide a cleaner and safer working environment; and St John Ambulance to support a First Aid in School program to teach primary school aged children how to respond in an emergency.
Guests rocked out to the sounds of the Awesome 80s show, featuring hit songs from the likes of Sean Kelly from The Models, Dale Ryder from Boom Crash Opera and Mark Gable from The Choir Boys.
