Cherish The Children - Inaugral Ball
by Robyn Lakeman
CHERISH THE CHILDREN – INAUGRAL BALL – 17th February, 2001
It was a wonderful evening – great company, fine food, fantastic atmosphere with the highlight of the evening being the auctioning of the Ford Mustang Cobra red convertible, kindly donated by Ford Australia. It went for about $100,000. Other items auctioned on the night were the “Number 1” print commemorating Pat reaching No. 1, Pat’s signed and framed Aus Open 2001 outfit, Aus Open racquet (a bit battered), Aus Open shoes. There was also a pair of Kostya Tszyu’s (boxer) gloves which Pat bid on but at the end told the guy bidding against him that he could have it with a big smile and some Essendon memorabilia. Pat bid on the Essendon Football Club jumper signed by the current premiers, I think from memory he paid about $3,000. The MC for the evening was Tim Watson, a current sports reader on Channel 7, ex coach of St. Kilda and ex champion footballer for Essendon in the 80s and 90s. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim and he told me that 22% of Victorians barrack for Essendon and there are 14 football clubs, so that’s pretty amazing.
Raffle tickets were sold during the night and prizes were a Maton guitair signed by Tommy Emmanuel, Delta Europcar car hire, Sofitel accommodation package, footwear, Collins books – a signed copy of Jesse Martin’s “Lionheart” etc.
The ball was the brainchild of Janelle Mashford and I am sure she would have been delighted with the success.
I was asked to be the official photographer for the evening as Louise and Jocelyn love my pics and I revelled in it. I just love taking photos and I was able to take lots of pics of Pat and follow him around from table to table as part of my job for the evening. Some people do it tough! Actually it was quite tiring as I was photographing a lot of the tables, the entertainment, the atmosphere, the Rafter family etc. etc. so I was on the go all night, but I absolutely loved it. I had my normal camera and digital camera with me. Unfortunately all photos are the property of Louise of Cherish the Children so I cannot put any up for you to see. Sorry about that, you know I would if I could as I always love to share with you guys.
I was seated at the Rafter table with Jocelyn, Louise, Pat and Lara, Geoff, Pete and a lovely couple whose name escapes me now, I met a lot of people and my memory is like a sieve at the moment. When Pat and Lara arrived Pat gave me a kiss and I couldn’t help myself, I ran my fingers through the stubble on his head. It actually felt quite nice. It’s about 0.5 mm now. I told my hubby this morning and he said that the DJ Amanda Kellar had just mentioned that morning on the radio that is one of her fantasies at the moment and I did it, so he thought that was cool. All you Aussie girls know how much Amanda loves Pat! It looks like Pat may have short hair for quite a while now, he was fed up with the long hair apparently and is feeling really good about his new look.
The evening was very tiring for Pat, he was constantly hounded for autographs, pics, people just wanting to chat and he never really had a chance to relax at all. He was dressed in a dark charcoal suit with an open necked charcoal shirt. Lara had a gorgeous Chinese white brocade silk dress on. I can imagine how tired Jocelyn and Louise were too, it was a huge effort on their part and a very successful evening. They amaze me the way they work tirelessly for Cherish the Children.
Apart from the auction and raffle, they showed “The Boy from Nowhere” a video presentation of Pat’s rise to success. This was first shown at the Aus Open in 1998. The song is by Tom Jones about El Cordobes and is on a CD called The Matador, if I remember rightly. If anyone knows where a copy of this can be purchased please let me know because Jocelyn is keen to purchase same. Louise and Jocelyn gave a speech and a video was featured on Cherish the Children and Monash Medical Centre. The evening was to collect funds to help the neonatal intensive care unit at Monash in the purchase of a humidicrib. They featured a baby girl born at 24 weeks gestation which brought back memories for me as Luke was born 19 years ago at 25 weeks gestation and was considered a bit of a miracle then especially with the long battle he fought to survive.
During the evening Peter Sullivan’s Big Band played and on talking to Peter later he said it was the first time in years that the whole 15 of them were together at the one time. Later Frank Bennett was featured in cabaret with the Peter Sullivan band. There was much fun and dancing. They even played “I will survive” which brought back memories of dancing kangaroos in Spain lol
All in all a wonderful evening and congratulations to Pat, Louise and Jocelyn, for your tireless work with Cherish the Children, you’re all warriors! And thanks so much for allowing me to be a part of it.