Broker fundraiser celebrates resilience

Email Print

10 December 2012

The annual McLardy McShane Reach Christmas lunch has raised $160,000 for charity, taking its total over the past four years to $515,000.

The event at Melbourne’s Docklands – themed “celebrating resilience” – included a video tribute to Reach’s late co-founder Jim Stynes.

The charity runs workshops and camps for young people, promoting mental and emotional wellbeing. About 20 lunch guests sponsored a teenager to attend the group’s Camp Maasai.

Some of Reach’s past participants shared their stories with the 570 guests.

MC and ABC3 presenter Kayne Tremills recalled growing up while his parents struggled with drug addiction and mental illness.

He attended his first Reach workshop as a teenager and says the charity helped put him on track to achieve his dream of presenting children’s television.

Former X Factor contestant and Iraqi refugee Emmanuel Kelly sang at the lunch and shared his story.

He was adopted by humanitarian Moira Kelly after she brought him and his brother to Australia for surgery, then “fell in love with us”.