Summer 2016/17

Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation

_________________

WELCOME_________________

MISSION STATEMENT_________________

2016 BALL _________________

RIDE2CLIMB_________________

SCHOOL VISIT_________________

PATRON_________________

AMBASSADOR__________________

STADIUM STOMP_________________

$105K DONATION__________________

FIRE ENGINE PULL_________________

OPEN DAY_________________

NEWLAND WARD_________________

REGIONAL STATIONS_________________

SHAKE THE BOOT__________________

SPONSORS_________________

WHAT’S ON

THIS ISSUE

MISSION STATEMENTThe Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation is committed to prevention, support and recovery programs for Firefighters and their families, as well as burns and road trauma survivor’s in South Australia.

The Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation (APFF) has been busy this year. Some of the activities we have been involved in include, a Fire Engine Pull, 2016 Firefighters Ball, Ride2Climb, donation to Team-Kids, hospital visits, crew visits to school affect by fire, donations to people affect by fire, regional Open Days and Shake the Boot.

We would like to thank our members who donate each pay and espe-cially to the people that volunteered during the year. Without volunteers the Firefighters Foundation would be unable to run the events to raise money.

Special thanks to the Metropolitian Fire Service (MFS) Management for their continued support.

We wish all members and supporters of the Foundation a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year. See you in 2017!

Firefighters Foundation Board

WELCOME

The 2016 Winter Wonderland Firefighters Ball was held on May 28th at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Attended by over 300 people, guests were entertained by our Ambassador and MC on the night, Brenton Ragless.

The highlight on the evening was the presentation of the Life Membership to Kevin (Billy) Boyle and Greg Crossman. Over the years both Billy and Greg have volunteered tirelessly to assist with the Foundation, showing the true meaning of altruism.

Attendee’s to the Ball included Patron of the Foundation, Minister Peter Malinauskas and his wife Annabel, as well as valued supporters such as Langmeil Winery, Teusner Wines, Channel 9 and LHD Group Australia. Phil Harris from Har-ris Real Estate did a fantastic job with the live auction and we express our thanks to him.

For the first time we had a ‘Belle’ and ‘Bloke’ of the Ball and of course Deefa got involved. The Foundation was extremely fortunate to have fantastic prizes donated for both the auction and raffle. We would like to make a special mention of Betty Edwards who every year donates a painting to the ball.

We hope all those who attended had a wonderful time and we look forward to seeing you at the Ball in 2017.

2016 WINTER WONDERLAND FIREFIGHTERS BALL

RIDE2CLIMB - MELBOURNE STAIR CLIMB

On the 26th August 2016, 13 MFS Firefighters along with 4 support crew, departed Adelaide station by bike, bound for Melbourne to participate in the Melbourne Fire Fighter Stair Climb event. The Stair Climb event is hosted to raise money for a nominated charity. This year’s charity of choice was the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute(MCRI).

The Aim of the Ride2Climb event was to ride our bikes to Melbourne to promote the charity and stair climb event and raise $10,000 along the way. Our other objectives were to draw attention to the positive work of SAMFS Fire Fighters and the APFF in our community and foster relationships with other Emergency Services namely the Country Fire Service (CFS), Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB). We also raised funds for the CFS and CFA stations that hosted us and raised money for our Foundation too.

The following people took part in and completed the ride:

Station Officer’s Chas Thomas, Dave Kubler, Gavin Holland, Michael Tagell, Travis Hickman,Communications Officer Robin Belfield, Senoir Firefighter’s Dan Graham, Jo Kenney, John Cummins, Wayne Frost, Brad Burch, Pedro Martins, Dylan Faber.Support Crew: Station Officer David Pritchard and Senior Firefighter’s Grant Chatterton, Craig Ford, Tim Caddy.

The spokes person for the group Dan Graham reported; The undertaking was quite significant, the ride itself being only one part of a larger plan. Each participant had a portfolio to arrange, from organising the cycling clothing kit through to liaising with Victorian Police and Victorian Roads to gain consent to ride on certain roads.

Once underway, we enjoyed great support from both Victor Harbor MFS and Mt. Gambier MFS as well as CFS Meningie and CFS Kingston S.E. in terms of donations and accommodation. We are very grateful for their support and contributions.

On arrival in Melbourne we undertook the stair climb event and managed a silver medal in the team event.

We surpassed our goal of $10,000 raised, with our final funds raised figure being just shy of $23,000.

Each member is incredibly proud of our achievement and we would like to acknowledge the APFF and Cathy Hann in particular for her tireless work in helping this event come together.

The event also provided a fantastic networking opportunity with the event organisers and provided scope for future events. Research is currently being undertaken for future events and opportunities.

I wish to thank the foundation for their support and we hope that you share in our pride at what was a very successful event.

ST MARY’S VISIT SA SCHOOL FOR VISION IMPAIRED

The South Australian School for Vision Impaired lost their playground in a fire earlier this year. The APFF organised St Mary’s Station to pay them a visit. The visit was a great success, the kids loved Deefa and loved being allowed to get into the fire truck.Big thank you to Station Officer Roger Winter, Paul Scuteri, Ben Allen and Craig Donnellan. The guys were amazing with the kids.

Peter recently became the Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Police and Minister for Correctional Services. Peter is honoured to have been asked to be Patron of the APFF and is looking forward to working with the Foundation to further their work in assisting burns and road trauma survivors and firefighter members and their families. As a firm believer in the importance of family and community Peter has spent all of his working life working with both employees and em-ployers in the retail industry to find a balance that benefits all South Australians. After completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the Univer-sity of Adelaide and prior to entering the Legislative Council, Peter was the State Secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ As-sociation. In this role he was the driver behind the historic changes to shop trading hours in the Central Business District and the creation of two part-day day public holidays on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

In Peter’s spare time, he can often be found at a Port Power game or out on the footy field with his beloved Adelaide Uni (The Blacks). Peter’s great love is his family. Peter and his wife Annabel have one daughter Sophie.

Brenton Ragless is ambassador for the APFF and has a well-established connection with the state’s fire and emergency services. His interest with the fire service evolved from the age of five when he tagged along with his dad to the Eden Hills Country Fire Service Brigade. On finishing Blackwood High School in 1993, Brenton followed in his father’s footsteps to become an active volunteer firefighter – which af-ter eight years led to a full-time position as Country Fire Service Me-dia Spokesperson providing commentary on fires and other disasters. This regular liaison between Country Fire Service and the media later opened the door in 2008 to Brenton becoming Channel 9’s weekday Weather Presenter for six years, and now News Anchor. Brenton is also an ambassador for the Country Fire Service Foundation, and still provides support to SA’s fire services as an advocate for fire safety and prevention. Occasionally he responds with the Cherry Gar-

dens Brigade to provide ground support for air operations over the Fire Danger Season. While working at Country Fire Service Headquarters, Brenton wrote and produced numerous DVDs that were used for educational and promotional purposes. He also developed training packages on safe fireground practice for media.

AMBASSADOR OF THE FOUNDATION BRENTON RAGLESS

PATRON OF THE FOUNDATION MINISTER PETER MALINAUSKAS

STADIUM STOMP 2016 ADELAIDE OVAL The Stadium Stomp was held on Sunday July 3 at Adelaide Oval. Stadium Stomp involves walking up and down every step in Adelaide Oval- that’s over 6000 steps! Nine Firefighters from Oakden, Adelaide, Port Adelaide and Woodville took part in the event wearing their Level 2 PPC and Breath-ing Apparatus. This year the MFS Stadium Stomp team raised over $1400 for Beyond Blue with donations still com-ing in. The group known as “SAMFS Stair Champs 2016” is currently placed 2nd in donations for a team. The plan for next year is to get more firefighters involved in this great fitness and charity event, so keep your eye out for information next year. In the meantime if you would like further information contact Cecilia Low, B shift Station 20.

ULTRA PULSE LASER $105k DONATION

Members of the Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation and the World Police and Fire Games Club joined TeamKids at the launch of the new Ultra Pulse Laser in the Burns Service at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Thanks to funding in excess of $150,000 from these two groups, burns patients will now have access to advanced laser technology for the treatment of burns scars.

March 15 saw the Inaugural Fire Truck Pull between the Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation and Cops for Kids. Initiated by TeamKids and held at the Torrens Parade Grounds, Cops for Kids won by a finger length.

Massive thank you to Airport Aviation Firefighters for their turn out and MFS Firefighters. Thanks to TeamKids.

Watch out next year Cops for Kids (Drew and Marty!!!)

OPEN DAY AND PAGEANT LOADING

Pageant loading was a great success with plenty of volunteers. Those who attended had a great day. Thank you to the MFS for assisting with crew on the Saturday and to all the volunteers.

The Open Day was also successful for our merchan-dise stall with Susie Leith and Kally Southern, both board members, selling to the public. We thank them and also the amazing retirees for who managed the BBQ. A special mention must go to Trevor Ward for always helping out with the Foundation.

The Foundation raised over $8,000 over those two days.

NEWLAND WARD

PORT LINCOLN OPEN DAY

LOXTON LIGHT UP DAY

2016 SHAKE THE BOOT®The APFF’s annual Shake the Boot® collection has just been completed in the metropolitan area. Dozens of SAMFS Firies, Air Services Firies, Nurses and Country Women’ s Association Ladies volunteered their time on the 25th & 26th of November. Collections were conducted in the City, North Adelaide, Norwood and Glenelg with great success and with a lot of fun had along the way. We managed to raise the following amounts; City/North Adelaide - $7,135.35 Norwood/Glenelg - $2,317.50 As they do every year, The Wakefield Hotel made a massive and very generous donation of $4,332.00 Grand Total- $13,784.85 A lot of work goes into organising both nights. I would like to thank the following people for helping out, it is greatly appreciated and my life was made much easier with their assistance. Michael Clark & Paul Edwards (Air Services), James Abbott & Josh Byerlee (MFS) for contacing the pubs and bars.

Georgia Ross & Kally Southern for getting the Country Womens Association and nurses on board to help on the night.

A special mention goes the 8 lads from Squad 47.

Over the coming weeks STB collections will be happening around the Regional areas, if you can lend a hand please contact your regional station. Next year we are aiming to make STB bigger and better, if you are interested in helping out please contact me or the APFF. Keep in mind that the APFF is ours and we all need to lend a hand to make it even more successful. Cheers, Senior Firefighter Mark Cunningham

Patron of the Foundation Minister Peter Malinauskas

helping out at Shake the Boot

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

The Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation is committed to prevention, support and recovery programs for Firefighters and their families, as well as burns and road trauma survivor’s in South Australia.

With the fundraising dollar becoming harder to raise, we cannot express our appreciation enough for the companies that support the Foundation. Every donation helps the Foundation to assist peo-ple in need and others that will live with life long afflictions.

If you can please support the business’ that support us.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

Do you have a fundraising idea?The Foundation has a fundraising platform through GoFundriase.

If you know someone in need and have an idea how to raise funds, we can help. We can de-velop a web page for your event or cause. Donations can be made online and allocated to your station.

The cause needs to be in line with our constitution of burns road trauma survivors, or helping one of our own.

General donations can also be made at GoFundriase.

For more information contact the Foundation.

WHAT’S ON

January Bupa Challenge

20th May 2017 Ball

CONTACT THE FOUNDATION

Ph: 08 8352 7587 Mb: 0410 641 879 admin@apff.org.au 148 South Road Torrensville SA 5031

DONATIONS MADE• $105k donation to TeamKids for an Ultra Pulse La-

ser• $1000 Bedding Voucher to family who lost their

house• $1000 Coles Voucher people to a family who their

lost house• Childs bike to litte girl• $1000 to CEO Sleepout• $3000 for Play Therapist equipment at the Newland

Ward• $6000 to Road Awareness Program

ASSISTANCE FOR THOSE IN NEED

The Foundation is able to offer immediate assistance to people who meet our mission statement. To request assistance you must meet one of the following conditions:

• Person affected by fire

• Person affected by road trauma

• Be a member of the Foundation or immediate

family member

Please contact the Foundation if you know someone in need or apply through the website apff.org.au.