Kidzwish Foundation

The Hon. Joe Hockey MP was in Stockland Shellharbour on Wednesday 13th August taking questions from the public on a range of national and domestic issues.

One area that was of particular interest to KidzWish was the need for more Speech Therapy services.

The waiting lists for children in regional Australia can be up to 3 years which jeopardises the positive impact that early intervention can have.

To remedy this shortfall KidzWish offer Speech Therapy sessions at KidzWish Place, but there is still more funding required to ensure every child gets the support they need.

In the interest to secure more funding, whichever party is elected, Chris Beaven (Executive Director at KidzWish) raised the issue with the Shadow Treasurer to encourage more funding in this area should he be elected at the upcoming election.

Raising awareness for the needs of special children is an important role that KidzWish plays in the Illawarra community at all levels of government.

The Tornadoes celebrated their 50th Anniversary in style with a sold out event at Dapto Leagues Club.

On Saturday 7th August, The Tornadoes and special guests entertained 500 people from start to finish, with a series of encores.

The first set, together with long serving bass player Harry Mitchell and current rhythm guitarist Wayne Rogers, brought the house down leaving no room on the dance floor.

The second set contained the current members of the Tornadoes and, again, the dance floor was full from the first song.

The night was complimented with video presentations of The Tornadoes from the early days and also The KidzWish Christmas Party for 3000 special children.

All entertainers on the night performed for free with all proceeds raised going to The KidzWish Foundation to help the sick, disabled and disadvantaged children of the Illawarra.

Thank you to all the businesses on the night who donated funds and raffle items to help make this event a huge success.

On Friday 30th July, fairy finalists showed their support by visiting special needs school Para Meadows.

The aim of the day was to give the finalist an opportunity to meet some of the special needs children in the Illawarra who attend The KidzWish Christmas Party in November.

The fairies were introduced at the Para Meadows School’s assembly where they played a few fun activities and helped give out fairy bread and achievement awards to the children.

At the end of the assembly the students had the opportunity to dance with the 17 fairy finalists before they went back to class.

After the assembly, fairies enjoyed morning tea with the infant students in The Magical KidzWish Place, a playground KidzWish built for Para Meadows.

This was a chance for the fairies to interact with the children, where they talked, played and took photos.

A very enjoyable day for the Para Meadow children and fairies involved, a day that would be remembered for a very long time.

On Saturday 17th July, Stockland Shellharbour held The KidzWish Search for a Fairy Semi Final.

There was an amazing response of fairy applicants this year with a record number of 35 young girls applying, the highest number of fairy applications since 2006.

From the 35 applicants at the auditions only 17 hopeful fairies continued into the semi-finals.

The 17 semi-finalists performed 1 song in front of judges, family, friends and the general public of Stockland Shellharbour.

The day was a great success with lots of support from the crowd.

A big thank you to all the KidzWish Team who helped out on the day.