McQueen’s Wood Fired Pizza in Woodend matches funds at Live4Life Annual Dinner - helping raise over $30,000 for local charity
IMAGE CAPTION: McQueen’s Staff Nik, Tom, Jasmine and Lauren alongside some of the young people involved in Live4Life and CEO, Bernard Galbally. Image Credit: Kim Selby Photography.
At the recent Live4Life Annual Dinner, the Fielding family — the team behind McQueen’s Woodfired Pizza, Panini and Coffee Pit Stop in Woodend — generously offered to match the funds raised for the Silent Auction to the tune of $10,000. The matched funding pledge spurred people on to dig deep, helping to raise more than $30,000 on the night.
Nik, Tom, Lauren and Jasmine, young staff from McQueen’s, attended the lively event at the RACV City Club in Melbourne to present the cheque to Bernard Galbally, CEO at Live4Life. Items on offer at the Silent Auction included a Manchester United jersey signed by Marcus Rashford and a year’s movie tickets to the Kino Cinema.
“I’d like to thank McQueen’s for supporting young people’s mental health in rural and regional areas,” Bernard Galbally said. “It is wonderful to see a local business and the Fielding family helping their community in the Macedon Ranges and other rural communities — working together we can make a real difference in young people's lives.”
Marcus Fielding said it's "tremendous to get the Woodend community and our staff behind such a worthwhile cause."
The Live4Life Annual Dinner brings together volunteers, supporters and young people from 14 Victorian Live4Life communities and Break O’Day in Tasmania for a wonderful night of conversation and connection, celebrating the work Live4Life does for young people’s mental health and suicide prevention in rural and regional communities.
Live4Life is the only youth mental health and suicide prevention model designed by and for rural and regional communities, where the suicide rate is 40% higher than urban areas, and where 63% of young people trying to seek help are unable to access the mental health services they need.
Live4Life was recently recognised for its achievements and hard work, winning Suicide Prevention Australia’s (SPA) 2024 National LiFE Award for ‘Communities in Action’ at SPA’s national conference in Adelaide.
Since its inception in the Macedon Ranges in 2010, and with the generous support of people like the Fielding family, Life4Life communities have:
trained over 21,000 young people in evidence-based mental health education
trained more than 2,400 adults in Youth Mental Health First Aid©
reduced the stigma often encountered with mental health in rural communities
IMAGE CAPTION: McQueen’s Staff Nik, Tom, Jasmine and Lauren presenting Youth Live4Life CEO Bernard Galbally a $10,000 donation. Image Credit: Kim Selby Photography.
High resolution photos of the Live4Life Annual Dinner by Kim Selby Photography can be downloaded here.