The Sydney Young Leaders’ held their first in-person event in 12 months with a Kick-Off on Wednesday 3 March, kindly hosted by Peter Ryan at the fabulous Mrs. Jones Terrace at the Orient Hotel in the Rocks.
There was certainly an atmosphere of excitement at being out of the house and making up for the lost conversations of 2020! The timing of the drinks couldn’t be better as Paddy’s month arrives, with the hope that everyone can make the most of the relaxing on vertical drinking rules on 17 March.
New Sydney Young Leader Chair Mel Fisher welcomed everybody and expressed her thanks to Donna Campbell who was stepping down as YL Chair as she prepares to welcome her second child. Donna has fiercely led the Sydney Young Leaders over the last few years, through the highs of some of our most successful fundraisers and then the lows of the global pandemic, and on behalf of the rest of the YL Committee and The Ireland Funds Australia, Mel wished Donna the best of luck and expressed our gratitude at all that she has done.
Mel updated all our attendees, that as tough as 2020 was, with the help of our supporters, the Young Leaders contributed $21,707 to the $248,323 raised in FY20, some of which was released early to projects in need during the height of the pandemic. Projects included the Peter Mac Cancer Foundation in Australia and Women’s Tech and Fighting Words in Ireland. This year to date the Young Leaders have raised over $30,000 for the FY21 grant round to be released in June to Beyond Blue and MyMind.
Mel also mentioned that the Young Leaders are hoping to execute more socially distanced physical events throughout 2021 with a planned movie night, our annual global 5k and Christmas drinks.
To continue the work of the Fund in at a time when our projects and the people we support need us the most you can help by joining the Young Leaders. Our goal this year is to increase memberships as our fundraising events continue to be at the mercy of COVID restrictions.
