Dazzling night for dizzying number of projects

13 Jun 2013

By Matthew Biddle

Revellers at last year’s Mary MacKillop Foundation annual fundraising dinner. This year’s event will be held on June 28 at Government House.

The Mary MacKillop Foundation will host its annual fundraising dinner on June 28 at Government House in Perth city.

It is expected that about 200 people will attend the dinner, which is one of the Foundation’s biggest sources of funds each year.

Fred Chaney AO and Tony Simpson MLA will both be speaking at the event.

Chief Executive Officer of the Mary MacKillop Foundation, Sam Hardjono, said the event was a great opportunity to thank the community for its support.

“Aussies are generous people and all across Australia there are small, community-based projects that are dedicated to assisting those who are less fortunate than them or in need of a helping hand,” he said.

“As part of our commitment to never see a need without doing something about it, we are committed to helping these goodwill projects to meet even more needs.”

Mr Hardjono said the Foundation sought to follow the example of Australia’s first saint. “Our mission is to meet needs in a way that restores self-reliance and human dignity,” he said.

In 2012, the Foundation approved 64 “small, life-changing projects” throughout Australia by providing 12-month grants of up to $10,000 each.

Seventy-five projects have been approved for 2013, taking the Foundation’s total to more than 500 since its inception in 1995.

Additionally, the Foundation has funded tertiary scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for more than a decade. Last year, ten scholarship recipients graduated with degrees in medicine, nursing, midwifery, teaching and community management.