Reaching out to save lives
PETER Tanner and the Reach Foundation rescued a generation of children from their demons and provided them respite from challenging circumstances.
For a decade, Mr Tanner chaired the foundation alongside the late Melbourne footballer Jim Stynes.
“Reach saved kids’ lives. It really did,” Mr Tanner said.
“I grew in the organisation … Reach taught me a lot about my fellow man.”
For significant service to the community through leadership of charities and veterans affairs, Mr Tanner will today become a Member of the Order of Australia.
“It’s a recognition of what I’ve done, but also working with people to achieve that,” he said.
Mr Tanner, who lives in Wallington, considers the care Reach offered a young girl who attempted suicide as one of its lasting achievements.
“She broke bones from her feet to her chest,” he said.
“We took care of her and showed her what a beautiful person she was. She discovered during her time with us that she could sing, so she explored that to such an extent that she discovered something must have kept her alive so she could have a voice.”
Mr Tanner, 57, considers some of the young adults he cared for at Reach his mentors, and it’s a sign of just how grounded he is.
It’s likely Tanner saw a bit of his younger self in some of those the Reach Foundation helped over the years, because life hasn’t always been easy for the boy who grew up in housing commission Thomson and “ran away” with the navy for six years.
He has devoted more than a decade to not-for-profit organisations, including the Victorian branch of Save the Children Australia and Give Where You Live predecessor Community Chest.
Mr Tanner has a steely resolve to succeed, and that has seen his recruitment business Tanner Menzies flourish since it began in 1988.
He is vice-president of the Melbourne Naval Centre, giving back to the armed force that shaped his formative years.