Celebrating 20 years of fundraising, footy matches and fun!
Our priority is and always will be the welfare of our little heroes and their families. As we receive no government funding, we rely purely on our fundraising, corporate partnerships, licensed products, major events and our Adventure Tours to finance our projects and programs to help these kids.
One of our most successful fundraising adventures was our annual West End Slowdown footy match, created in 2000! In fact, the West End Slowdown is the most successful charity event of its type in Australia! This annual football match between Port Power and the Adelaide Crows features retired football icons and media personalities. However, in 2004 and 2011, West End Slowdown became a State of Origin grudge match, featuring the likes of Brendan Fevola, Matthew Lloyd, David Neitz, Russell Robertson, Wayne Weidemann, Tony Modra, Mark Ricciuto, Shaun Rehn, Gavin Wanganeen, Warren Tredrea, and many, many more! Thanks to the continued support of the SA public, this event remains one of the most popular events in our calendar!
Another successful fundraising adventure was our Little Heroes product range! Thanks to our partnerships with Foodland, Robern Menz, Bam Food Group and Zuppe Fresh, we produced a number of licensed products including Rainbow Ice Cream, Pasta Sauce, Little Heroes Dog Food, Menz Lollies and Zuppe Fresh Soup.
In the early 2000’s, and in partnership with Imagination Entertainment, we also created over a dozen Monopoly Board games, including an SA Icons version (pictured right) that have raised in excess of $3,000,000 for our little heroes.
Check out the TV advertisement video below! What a throwback!
Our adventure tours have become a real highlight for us, as we are able to offer our fundraisers a unique opportunity to travel across the world for their fundraising! We’ve sent teams to the Big Apple to compete in the famous New York City Marathon, to a special ANZAC Day service and trek along the Kokoda Track, and to London for the London Marathon! Our adventure tours have been a huge success, raising well into the hundreds of thousands for our projects! We’ve got a fantastic group of runners who will be traveling across to New York City this November to run in the New York City Marathon, including our very own Chris McDermott, Rosanna Mangiarelli, Kane Cornes, Tom Rehn, and a few of the Woodville West Torrens Eagles boys as well!
As the final article is this series, Little Heroes Foundation would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff and supporters who have contributed over the past 20 years.
Even now, after 20 years, we continue to be inspired by the generosity of others, and it is this generosity that helps us make a difference to the lives of so many seriously ill children and their families.
It has been a fun, challenging and humbling 20 years, here at Little Heroes Foundation. Here’s to the next 20!