Wednesday September 26
THIS EVENT SOLD OUT! Thank you TO ALL THOSE WHO ATTENDED this Grand Final week event and HELPED raise money for children with special needs.
To access your photo taken with the AFL Premiership Cup - CLICK HERE.
Now in its 29th year, Melbourne celebrities and football personalities mingle with footy fans to celebrate football’s ultimate prize, “The Premiership Cup”.
This event has now raised over $900,000 to assist Variety to empower children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs to live, laugh and learn.
Variety would like to thank everyone who attended Variety 2012 Toyota AFL Great Grand Final Luncheon and congratulates Young Sports Achiever Nathan Pellissier and Heart of Football Award recipient Nick Maxwell. We would also like to thank Evan Savage and the students from Manor Lakes P-12 College for attending today and accepting their giant key for their brand new Sunshine Coach!
Variety was pleased to present Manor Lakes P-12 College Assistant Principal Evan Savage and students, Kyle and Brandon with a key to a brand new 22 seater Sunshine Coach yesterday!
“Variety were great supporters of the College in our first year, providing assistance to purchase a Sunshine Coach which has served us extremely well.
Manor Lakes P-12 College has grown significantly in this time and the needs of our student population have become more diverse. In 2011/12, we have needed to hire a taxi or borrow a bus from a nearby Special Developmental School in order to make activities such as community access and excursions possible for a number of our students with high support physical needs.
With Variety's continued support, we will now have a Sunshine Coach, equipped with wheel chair access and a hoist. This will make a tremendous difference to the opportunities that the College is able to provide to all students on a daily basis.”
Special thank you to:
- Our MC’s Craig Willis, Tony Jones and Blair McDonough for keeping the busy day flowing
- Our footy guests Nathan Thompson, Matthew Richardson, Jonathan Brown and of course our Heart of Football winner Nick Maxwell for entertaining the guests with some insight into their lives on and off the field.
- Dylan Alcott , Peter Waters, Nicholas Hum and the Variety 2013 Young Sports Achiever Nathan Pellissier, we thank you for your inspirational stories.
- Mike Brady and the Young Hearts, thank you for your footy songs.
Congratulations to our raffle winners, John Mackie and John Crossin, Martin Evans and David Boxshall and to our award winners, Martin Stone and Kmart Australia.
To our sponsors of the day – AFL, Beloka Water, Crown, Hollick Wines, James Boag, Lexus of Blackburn and SEN – thank you for your support again in 2012. To the individuals and companies who donated auction items and raffle prizes, thank you.
But most of all we thank you, our guests for the fantastic effort in raising a record $178,800 on the day. Without your support, this would not be possible. The money raised from this event will assist Variety Victoria in putting smiles on thousands of children’s faces in the lead up to Christmas.
The annual Variety Young Sports Achiever Award is presented to a special young person who has overcome physical disabilities to achieve the level of success in a sporting arena, equivalent to an able bodied child.
We also present The Heart of Football Award to a person in the football fraternity who has continually displayed outstanding commitment to children.
Each year the Award recognises a current AFL player who has upheld these values and has inspired Variety through his selfless actions and dedication to children. **Past recipients have been Joel Bowden, Xavier Clarke, Andrew McLeod, Robert Harvey and Beau Water
2012 Heart of Football Award Winner: Nick Maxwell
2012 Young Sports Achiever Award Winner: Nathan Pellissier
Variety 2012 Young Sports Achiever is Nathan Pellissier. Nathan is 16 years old and has cerebral palsy, his sport is table tennis. He competes in Class 8 and was selected for the Paralympic Preparation Program in 2009.
Although he didn’t qualify for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, he has represented Australia a number of times in the Arafura Games in Darwin as well as internationally including the Asia & Oceania Regional Championships in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong in December 2011, he won a bronze medal and is a great chance for Rio in 2016.
He won the 2012 AWD Table Tennis Australia Nationals in his class and was also the Victorian School Sports award winner for an athlete with a disability 2011. Recently Nathan was selected in the State Victoria Team (able body) to compete at the Australian Junior Nationals in Perth next week.
Nathan trains over 20 hours per week as well as completing his studies in an accelerated program at Maribyrnong Secondary College where he is on a sporting scholarship.
Congratulations Nathan from all at Variety!