On Tuesday 08/10/2019, C.H.A.I.L.I.S held our fifth Annual General Meeting. It was a time spent reflecting on our achievements for the year, such as hosting a number of very successful fundraising events, and acknowledging the grievance and sadness our families have faced during the year.
We celebrated the generosity of the Sunraysia community. We are immensely proud of your ongoing commitment to support our region, by providing financial support to families of children who have an illness or disability during critical periods of their lives.
We discussed our sincere gratefulness to a number of incredible companies and organisation who have selected C.H.A.I.L.I.S to be a recipient of their tireless fundraising efforts.
We celebrated the efforts of all the C.H.A.I.L.I.S board members and reflected upon the support that was provided by a number of incredible board members we farewelled over the year. We delightedly welcomed a number of new board members, who shared in our excitement of the direction C.H.A.I.L.I.S is heading.
Our president gave a touching report that succinctly summed up our year –
“Chairman’s Report 2019
It is my pleasure to present the 2018-2019 C.H.A.I.L.I.S. (Children Having An Illness Living In Sunraysia) Annual Report.
In what has been a challenging year, we welcomed two new board members, Garry and Carol Walsh, however for family and health reasons, Sue Nichols, Maureen Smith, Wendy Holt and Rick Tomlinson are no longer members of the board. We thank Sue, Maureen, Wendy and Rick for their support and contribution whilst they were on the board.
On a sad note, young Ethan Neyland passed away this year and Piper Pain and her family have relocated to Bendigo to be closer to medical facilities.
Once again we received tremendous support from the community and a variety of organisations including, North West Victorian Motor Cycle Club where several of our members volunteered at this year’s Friday night scrutineering for their Hattah Enduro.
Our successful events this year also include the Mundoo Trivia Cruise with Brad Monaghan major sponsor and compere extraordinaire for the evening. CHAILIS Board Members and Friends collected at the gates at the Mildura Field Days and were ushers at the Mildura Musical Society’s production of Rapunzel. Board member Kady collected at the Goanna Run with other Board members along the with assistance from the Friends of C.H.A.I.L.I.S, held a successful raffle Mildura Entertainment’s, Get Your Blues On and we held a 10,000 steps event for Levi with several groups partaking in this fundraiser.
We thank David and Lyndsie Storer from Mildura Entertainment for their ongoing support in allowing us to fundraise at some of their events. A big thank you also goes to Marty and Kim at the Little Kim’s Cafe at Woodsies Gem Shop for allowing us to have our sibling day there again and watching as the children enjoy themselves so much. It is a truly wonderful day.
We are extremely grateful to the many businesses that support us and also allow us to put collection tins in their premises.
We have received tremendous support from River 1467 radio station, Mildura Weekly and Sunraysia Daily as they have promoted our events.
This year $55,000 has been donated to our C.H.A.I.L.I.S families, which is absolutely wonderful.
We were fortunate this year to have received major sponsorship from the Nangiloc Colignan Farms Golf day, Mildura Musical Society, Monaghan Truck and Trailer Sales and the North West Victoria Motor Cycle Club. We are also appreciative of the support from the Mildura Gateway Tavern.
We have been working to get a fence built to keep 5 year old Lachlan Loxton safe in their yard and thanks to the community and Gregg and Son’s Steel and Stratco this has been achieved and the fence is in the process of being erected. So a special thank you to the companies for their support and assistance.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the board members for their hard work and support during this year. A special thanks to Jan for helping collect at Banjo’s each Thursday.
Our challenge for 2019 – 2020 is to attract new board members and to continue to make a difference in the lives of our families.
John Burfitt
President”
If you have any questions about the work C.H.A.I.L.I.S does, or would like to support our mission to continue to offer assistance and relief to Sunraysia families who have a child with an illness or disability, please do not hesitate to get in touch!! We would love to hear from you.
C.H.A.I.L.I.S 