Spring Newsletter 2023

Faʻafeiloaʻi i Welcome to our quaterly newsletter. Continue reading to find out about our recent endeavours, future activities and opportunities for you to join us in supporting families living with childhood cancer.

What we've been up to...

October is an important time for everyone at our foundation.

This year marked the 8th anniversary of Abbey’s passing and we embraced the notion of Alofa, Samoan for Love. As the Solo family set out on their 5th October walk in memory of Abbey, they also welcomed Michelle and Akat in their endeavours in overcoming adversity and enhancing wellbeing.

We have so much to celebrate

Over the last few months, raising important funds in order to continue our work, supporting so many more families in ways that make a difference to their lives and growing our foundation family. Following on from the $10,000 grant last year, we were again successful in applying for funds through the Harold Mitchell Community grants program in 2023.

Sacred Heart School in Fitzroy

Joined our Abstar Ambassador program and raised $3500!! Eliza and Liberty from The Block, along with Damien from Grafico partnered with our own Novalie to produce 100 limited edition prints of her artwork, featured in Kids Bedroom Week and raised $5000.

Our Youth Committee

held their inaugural event at Kensington Town Hall. We could not be more proud of each and everyone of them, As a group of young, passionate leaders they planned, organised and delivered on their vision of a Spring Market on Nov 1.

Remarkably,

They raised over $8000. Kids helping kids, couldn’t get better than that! All of this matters because of the families we seek to help. In a world that sometimes can seem so dark......

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted"

Aesop

Gerard Broadfoot
 

President

Abbey Solo Foundation 
 

Our Vision

We exist to assist families living with childhood cancer with timely and practical support that meets THEIR needs and reduces financial and wellbeing stress. We will do what we can so that families can stay together, and be close to their child during treatment.

Seeing good in what we do

Bee Kind: Grafico and Novalie join forces

We welcome Sacred Heart School

as our newest AbStar School Ambassador

Their principal, Matt Shawcross was assistant principal at Mother of God School in Ardeer when Abbey was a student there.Our amazing committee and volunteers met up in Portarlington in January to celebrate a wonderful 2023. We exist to assist families living with childhood cancer with timely and practical support that meets THEIR needs and reduces financial and wellbeing stress. We will do what we can so that families can stay together, and be close to their child during treatment. A highlight was catching up with Dr Keith Waters and his wife, Heather. Keith was Abbey's Oncologist and cared for Abbey throughout her Leukemia journey, they were an inspiration to each other. Another highlight was having Abbey's grandmother, Makerita, over from New Zealand with us.

Alofa October 

We were saddened to hear of the sudden death of Harold Mitchell in February this year. Harold was a giant among the business and philanthropic worlds and two Harold Mitchell Foundation grants in 2022 and 2023 have enabled us to reach out to so many more families in need, we are grateful for that.

Run for Alofa – Akat Mayoum

As part of my 2023 Marathon experience, I was super privileged to work with the Abbey Solo foundation to help raise money for families facing childhood cancer. The foundation is relatively small, however it plays a significant role in the charity echo system by providing quick financial support to families in need. Overcoming adversity is what families navigating childhood cancer do every single day. So during my marathon overcoming my physical 

At the conclusion of the event, I caught up with the Solo family outside the MCG where we shared some really beautiful words. I walked away from that interaction being really proud of the hard work the family and foundation 

have put into helping families going though childhood cancer and preserving Abbey’s memory. 

I was super grateful to be able contribute to such a worthy cause. 

Thank you everyone who was able to donate. 

Row for Alofa – Michelle Robinson

We cheered and applauded the awe-inspiring participants from Diamond Phoenix Club who unleashed our competitive spirits and pushed for personal bests. We took to the waters to promote health, wellness, fitness, and most of all, fun. It’s the camaraderie with a team. Friendships that grow, mutual respect and team spirit that follow. We placed 8th out of 20 clubs who participated so overall a fantastic result. Our best time on the day was 01:04.52. We were the smallest club of participants there; we had a crew of 16 while the other teams had crews of 50+ so they all had fresh arms for each race. 

Support for families 

Responding to requests from the Allied Health team at the Children’s Cancer Center at the Royal Children’s Hospital, our assistance regularly reaches families within 24 hours and is in response to their expressed needs. Over the last couple of months we have continued to support families with a variety of assistance. Parking exit cards and vouchers to help with the cost of fuel and food continue to be in demand. 

Increasingly, we are supporting families to stay at the Larwill Studio apartments at the hospital in times of great need when they are unable to stay with their young one while they are in PICU. Sadly, we are also supporting families by contributing to the cost of funerals when their loved one has gained their angels wings. 

99.5% of all funds we raise with your support goes directly to helping families. We join the families in expressing our gratitude for your continued generoisty. 

SPRING MARKET

October 1, Kensington Town Hall 

They are a group of young people, aged between 6 and 17 years old. This is the first year they have been together. Apart from gathering at Torquay for a formation day early in the year they have met in the online world of Zoom like professionals, using online tools, google chats and collaborative google forms. 

Some of them knew Abbey since they were babies together, others have grown to know Abbey from the stories that their families and friends have shared, and some have been inspired by Abbey’s vision 

They are our Abstar Youth Committee and they had a vision to take responsibility for a major event for the foundation and settled on a Spring Market. 

Meet the AbSTAR Youth Committee

President’s Report AGM September 2023 

During the global pandemic we turned to meeting online via Zoom. We have continued to meet in this way and do so four times a year on the first Monday of each season. 

We continue our strong relationship

With the Allied Health team at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Oncology, where the vast majority of requests for family support come from. They are aware of our ability to respond to families’ bespoke needs as well as the broad range of support we offer. Importantly, they are also aware of the at times, limited funds to draw on and make requests with that in mind. 

Relief from cost of parking at RCH, short-term stays at Larwill apartments, contributing to costs of wigs and funerals as well as covering household bills for families in crisis, have been just some of the supports we have provided families. As always, there is deep appreciation from families and hospital staff for what we do. 

One of the major achievements for our foundation

This year has been the establishment of the AbStar Youth Committee. An outstanding group of young people, they meet regularly online and have their first stand-alone event: Spring Market, Kensington Town Hall, October 1. 

The foundation’s quarterly newsletter is a great way of celebrating who we are what we strive to do for families. It is distributed to foundation family and friends, sponsors and supporters and to families we have supported over time. 

We are grateful

To the Howard Mitchell Foundation for a grant of $10000 and to the Freemason’s Foundation for $5000 all of which goes to families in need. 

We continue to hold monthly Bunnings Sausage BBQs, which remain a major source of funds for the foundation each year. We are grateful to both Bunnings for the opportunity and Ralph’s Meat for the quality produce. 

Our Annual T20 Cricket Match

Between Vic Police and the Abbey Allstars and Sunshine Height Cricket Club continues to go from strength to strength. We are so grateful to both organisations for your ongoing support and belief in what we do. 

For the first time

We held a Trivia Night this year. It modelled the very spirit of our foundation, with family at the centre. We are grateful to the City of Melbourne for their grant to cover costs of hiring Kensington Town Hall. We look forward to this becoming an annual event on our calendar. 

We are grateful

To Anna Meredith for an enormous amount of work developing our new foundation website. While we retain the existing domain, the new website more readily reflects the vision of the foundation, showcases our support and celebrates our achievements. 

We continue to submit applications to grant makers to supplement our fundraising. It would be timely to seek major sponsors for our foundation beyond events and donations. While the relief from costs of parking that families receive with our parking vouchers is deeply appreciated, the overall costs of ongoing parking beyond our ability to help remains a burden for all families. Consideration should be given to seeking support for advocating to RCH admin on behalf of long-term families. 

We should all be immensely proud of what we have achieved together over the last eight years. It is a significant achievement to continue to raise sufficient funds to continuously support families in need over that time. Our bespoke support of families, seeking to meet their immediate and diverse needs does not go unnoticed at RCH and has been spoken of highly amongst those who work in the field every day.

We have a rightful place amongst the giants of NGOs and charities who all work tirelessly to make the lives of children and their families, that little bit better. Abbey would be proud. 

Gerard Broadfoot
 

President

Abbey Solo Foundation 

Looking for some Christmas Cards this year?

Maybe some wrapping paper or stickers too? 

Made with love, and supporting Children’s cancer charities,

get some of Novalie’s creations. 

Our Board Members

Our Committee Members

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