Every Friday night, the Burleigh Town Hotel conducts a raffle as part of their Tradie Club festivities to raise money for charity.

On 31 March 2023, Fighting Chance gratefully received a generous donation of $3,547.15!

Long-time supporters of Fighting Chance,  Ross Paterson and Neville Hedge, are pictured here receiving the cheque from Ebony, the raffle coordinator at Burleigh Town Hotel.

“What a fantastic donation”, Neville commented.

Neville and Ross are holding their annual charity golf day to raise money for Fighting Chance on Friday, 8 September 2023.  This donation will be added to the funds raised at that event.

Thank you to Burleigh Town Hotel, Neville and Ross for your ongoing support of Fighting Chance.

Long time Fighting Chance supporters, Neville Hedge and Ross Paterson have held a very successful golf day to raise funds for Fighting Chance for the last 7 years. Here are their highlights from the 2022 event. Thanks Nev and Ross for your invaluable support.

By organisers Neville Hedge & Ross Paterson

This year’s 7th Fighting Chance Annual Charity Golf Event was held at The Glades Gold Coast on Friday, 9th September and raised $14,500!

We were lucky to finish the event… One hundred and forty players lined up in their carts, ready to get out on the course for the ‘shotgun’ start; the starter said ‘go,’ and down came the rain! Nevertheless, all players except for two teams completed the course, and while we managed with intermittent rain throughout the day, we finished with sunshine.

We were pleased to have all holes sponsored, with at least half the tee boxes conducting some fun to keep everyone entertained and interested. The $20,000 “Hole in One” prize on the 13th did not go off, despite most golfers donating $10 to have a go.

On the 17th par 3 – Ilani, our lovely golf professional, played some great shots for any team who donated $20. One of her shots, however, did win the $200 ‘nearest the pin’ prize for her team.

It was great to have Jigsaw CEO Paul Brown join us. At the presentation, Paul gave an overview of Fighting Chance: they now have five enterprises across 14 locations in four states, which impact the lives of nearly 1500 people with disability! They are a true leader in the Australian disability sector, and we are so proud to support their incredible work.

Ashleigh Rose Powell, entrepreneur and artist at Avenue Frenchs Forest was our guest of honour, with her parents Tim and Chimene helping out. Special thanks to Pete and Bec Ebborn for their usual support.

Tony and Michelle Davis from Anchor Building Services are not newcomers when it comes to helping out with Fighting Chance – they were again our major sponsors, and whilst they enjoyed participating – they received a thorough drenching as well! 

Laura and Jordan O’Reilly have won the National Disability Insurance Scheme Grant, $500,000 in government funding to go towards their not-for-profit organisation, Fighting Chance. Established in 2011, the social enterprise identifies problems experienced by people with disability, and assists them by providing opportunities to join the workforce through social businesses that facilitate learning and employment processes.

The money from the federal government will go to Jigsaw, one of Fighting Chance’s social enterprises, which provides digital training, computer skills, short-term paid employment to people with disability, giving them major learning opportunities before they approach the mainstream workforce.