Long Lunch – 2 Aug 2019

Thank you to the Canberra community for their generous support of our inaugural long lunch-making it our largest and most successful event ever! We are overwhelmed by the result and promise to work as hard as we can to maximise the benefit to the young people we support in return. We tried to keep formalities to a minimum and fun to a maximum. All the feedback I have received has been positive and people are already trying to secure tables for next year!

 

With your help, we managed to:

• fill the room with around 300 attendees
• Raise over $35,000 to fund our outreach workers and new van
• sign up 25 Raw Potential Roady sponsors to cover 100% the running costs of the van for its first year
• sell every last drop of Mount Majura Vineyard’s fundraising wine

 

Total silence greeted a mesmerizing address by author, comedian and inspiring social advocate Corey White. He is living proof that every young person, even those dealt a terrible hand in life, can live a happy and meaningful life with a little external support. I encourage all of you to purchase a copy of Corey’s new book ‘The prettiest horse in the glue factory”, as a way of thanking him for sharing his experience and do our part to write the unwritten chapter- a happy ending.

 

On any given night in Canberra, there are around 200 homeless or at-risk youth. The support our outreach program offers doesn’t pretend to be grand or miraculous, but it is essential. Our van will allow us to remove some of the physical barriers that can prevent people from performing tasks essential to daily life on the street, including internet, printing, phone chargers and email.

 

This will dramatically increase our ability to assist youth with job searching and applications, applying for accommodation and communicating with government and other support agencies. From the event, we can now officially declare the outreach van a community-funded asset!

 

For this, I am so grateful to everyone that bought a ticket or table. To our event sponsors, to Reigan Derry for travelling all the way from LA to entertain us, to Corey, to all the amazing individuals and businesses that put their hand in their pocket on the day.

 

My heart is full and on behalf of the Raw Potential Board sincerely thank you.

 

Justine Redwin

Director