“Looking round this room tonight, you might be under the impression that we’re a large organisation. But the truth is, all of our employees and Board members could fit on two tables. With 45 tables booked, you can see how important our extended community of mentors, volunteers, sponsors and supporters are to Menslink.”
Last week, Menslink hosted our second annual Big Night Out event at the Southern Cross Club in Woden. We were so grateful to have had 450 people attend – some of whom came all the way from Sydney and Brisbane to show their support.
It was a groovy 70s and 80s theme, so I went dressed as Billy Idol and had fun catching up with all my old pals – Axl Rose, Dame Edna Everage, Madonna and David Bowie to name a few!
We had over 90 items donated for auction, most of which went up on ALLBIDS as a silent auction. These included some amazing donations from some of our favourite local personalities, including:
- ACT Australian of the Year David Morrison
- TV presenter Genevieve Jacobs
- Professional bicycle racer Matt Hayman
- Mountain biker Ben Henderson
- Chief Wine Maker Tim Kirk from Clonakilla Wines
The hammer went down at around 11pm on the night, and we also had a number of big ticket donations which were auctioned off live, such as:
- A Volkswagen Amarok from Lennock Volkswagen
- A weekend away at Terry Snow’s Willinga Park Equestrian Centre
- TV and radio advertising from WIN and Canberra FM
- Home renovation packages from Southern Innovations and SP Electrical
- The chance to drive a brand new luxury Volkswagen Arteon for six months, thanks to Volkswagen Australia
The Canberra community really got behind us, and the monies raised are a sensational effort for such a small charity.
A BIG thank you to everyone who donated items, made financial contributions, or just showed up to support us. Thank you to all of our Menslink partners, whose ongoing support makes it possible to get events like these off the ground.
After all was said and done, the Big Night Out raised over $150,000 that will go directly towards helping Menslink provide our free mentoring and counselling programs for local young men in need.
I’ll leave you with a testimonial that shows exactly why we do what we do at Menslink, and how your money and valuable donations help those in our community who need our support….
“To put it quite plainly, Menslink saved my life. Before I met John* and the rest of the mentors I was in a bad spot. Didn’t see a good relationship with my father, and I didn’t really have anyone I could talk to about what I was going through because no one understood. The day I met the mentors was the day I was going to kill myself, I had it all planned out. But I decided that I’d give the mentor thing a shot and I’m so glad that I did because it turned my life around. John understood what I was going through on a level that no one else did because he lived through it all himself. To summarise, I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the work that the Menslink guys put in.”
– Menslink Mentee
*John not his name
Marty
(For more pics, please visit our Facebook page).