Gift gets charity wheels turning
Defrauded youth care group to buy van with cash from fundraiser
A DEFRAUDED Cairns charity will use a huge community donation for a shiny new van to get back on the streets to feed the city’s homeless children.
Street Level Youth Care was forced to cease operations last year after its former directors Roy and Sue Edwards, 51 and 60, were charged with stealing about $50,000.
Mr Edwards is due to be sentenced in October after working to pay back the cash. His wife has not entered a plea.
The charity, which is run through the Cairns Baptist Church, was the beneficiary of this year’s FNQ Emergency Services Ball and yesterday ball organisers said $35,000 had been raised.
The church’s Senior Pastor Josh McGinty, who is spearheading the charity’s resurgence, said it returned to the streets last month.
He said the volunteer-run group was currently operating three nights a week out of Harald Falge Park at Manunda but was hoping to extend this to every night with more venues.
“The volunteers are really looking forward to getting out there and helping out,” he said.
“The emergency services, they do just such a fantastic job anyway, but for them to invest into us as another community organisation is just humbling.”
The charity used to operate in the CBD before moving to the Manunda park, coincidentally named after its founder.
“There are people in town that need help, but they’re mostly adults,” Pastor McGinty said. “In that (Manunda) area there are a lot of kids that hang out or pass through that park who are disadvantaged. We felt a bit of a pull to head out there and it just worked out that it’s Harald’s park.”
Ball committee vice president Helen Reed said they had raised about $180,000 for local charities in the five years the ball had been running.
Next year’s ball has already been scheduled for August 1, with a beneficiary to be announced at a later date.
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