Page 2481 - Week 06 - Thursday, 24 June 2010
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Later, the club was granted a block of land and a major activity was the building of a house, which eventually brought a $46,000 profit. So, from little beginnings, big and bigger projects grew and the club’s members’ hard work and energy have been continued over the years and are now carried out by its members of 2010.
Some of its initiatives have included the marshalling of the Canberra Day procession for 21 years; support of Marymead through the building of a swimming pool; the building of the original Camp Cottermouth for scouts; the establishment of a safe house for teenage boys that was eventually handed in to the care of the Salvation Army; the purchase of a yacht for Sailability, to provide a sailing program for people with disabilities; and the continued close involvement with Lions Youth Haven at Kambah. These initiatives typify the growth and substance of Lions International and what the organisation represents today.
I would like to congratulate President Rick Scheeren and his wife, Vicky, immediate past president, John Hayhoe, and some of the other members I met on the night: Ron Coffey, Robert Altimore, Les Coulter, Keith Gould, James Smith, Gary Dengate, Reg Frankel, John Boundy and Danny Howard.
I wish the Lions Club of Canberra City all the best and hope that it can continue to serve and challenge our community.
Childhood Hero Day
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (5.34): I would like to bring to the attention of the Assembly the Australian Childhood Foundation’s Childhood Hero Day, which was yesterday.
This event has been created and promoted by the Australian Childhood Foundation with the aim of drawing the nation’s attention to the issue of child abuse within our communities. The Australian Childhood Foundation have recently found, through their annual survey “Doing Nothing Hurts Children”, that Australians rate child abuse 13th on a list of community concerns, behind road tolls, council rates and petrol prices.
The survey also found that only one per cent of respondents were able to identify the number of cases of child abuse reported each year in Australia, which in the 2008-09 year was 339,454. One in three respondents believed that children made up stories about child abuse. One in four respondents were not sure they would believe a child’s disclosure of abuse. Twenty-eight per cent of respondents did not feel confident enough to recognise the signs of child abuse and neglect, and one in three respondents felt tense and anxious when they took part in conversations about child abuse.
A childhood hero is an ordinary Australian who wants to make a difference to Australia’s most vulnerable children. Childhood Hero Day achieves its aim by celebrating the fun, innocence and importance of childhood while raising much needed funds that go towards helping abused children receive the specialist counselling they need to recover from the trauma of abuse, neglect and family violence.
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