Dr. Gavin Wheaton HKSA’s First Patron

Extract from Chairman’s Report from 2008 AGM

It has been a very busy year for HeartKids SA and our achievements for 2007-2008 include;
• A fantastic turnout to the Annual Christmas Picnic, held in November last year at St Andrews School in Walkerville.
• Appointment of Kylie Bath into the Family Support Coordinator position as our inaugural employee, who has done a fantastic job of supporting our families both in and out of the hospital.
• Appointment of Kerry Southwell into the State Manager position, in which she has done a fantastic job in not only raising vital funds for the organisation, but raising awareness for children and our profile.
• Creation of the HeartKids SA Financial Assistance Fund to help ease the financial burden experienced by families who must travel to Adelaide or Melbourne for treatment. At this early stage this fund will be used to help subsidise some of the accommodation costs of these travelling families, but in the future we hope to grow the scope of this fund to cover many of the other cost that families must bear whilst their children undergo treatment.
• Launch of a new partnership with IKEA Adelaide who are hoping to raise $10,000 to assist families with accommodation costs through the HeartKids SA Financial Assistance Fund.
• The formation of an Events and Fundraising Sub-committee that were able to raise approx $30,000 over the last 12 months from a number of events that included;
o A Quiz Night, that was attended by over 150 people,
o A movie night to launch our new partnership with IKEA
o Various fundraising BBQs across Adelaide
o City-Bay Fun Run, with 169 participants sporting HeartKids t-shirts and caps that were proudly sponsored by IKEA.
• The coordination and execution of an intensive 3 day media campaign with HeartKids Victoria to advocate for the plight of the many families that were having their surgery cancelled due to the shortage of services at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. I commend Kerry on the fantastic job she did in organising the campaign at such short notice, and I thank Lisa Guy and her family for allowing us to share her story as part of that campaign.
• Last but by no means least, the appointment of our inaugural Patron Dr Gavin Wheaton to whom we will be making a presentation a little later.

(Matthew Turner, Dr. Gavin Wheaton and guest speaker at AGM, Christie Anthoney)
Going forward HeartKids SA needs to work on the following to ensure that we are able to sustain the fantastic growth of the last 12 months;
• Revision of our strategic plan to account for our growth over the last 12 months and our planned growth for the coming year,
• The development of a Support Plan that not only outlines our support programs as of today, but what we envisage they will be in five years time,
• The expansion of our support services, to ensure that the same level of support is available to all families at all times in both metropolitan and rural areas,
• Build on the Financial Support Fund to enable its expansion to cover more than just the accommodation costs incurred by families that need to travel for treatment,
• Build on the fundraising success of the past 12 months, to enable the organisation to fund the planned growth for the coming year
• Review and update our Constitution to enable us to recruit people from outside our organisation to help us manage and grow the organisation.