June 2019
The 2019 Kokoda adventure has been completed for another year, and this year we were extremely honoured to have Commissioner Fuller join us. The trek was gruelling in every sense, due to the difficulty of the terrain, the tropical heat, the lack of comfortable beds, and the fatigue of walking long hours each day. But despite this it was a great opportunity for our Police Legatees to bond and have a sense of personal achievement. The Commissioner took the time to connect with everyone, listening to their stories and to the challenges they faced losing partners and parents. Needless to say, there were a few tears shed amongst the sweat and heartache along the trek.
We are very fortunate that from the funds raised by the Commissioner we will be able to host our second Moving Through Grief as a Family weekend later this year. The program helps our families learn to adjust to the loss of a partner/parent. We ran our first weekend last year and it was an invaluable opportunity for our Police Legatees to share their emotions and grief. We thank Commissioner Fuller for his outstanding fundraising to allow us to host this program again.
At this year’s AGM in May we saw three of our long-term Directors – Peter Rankin, Paul Martin, and Michael Cook – step down from the Board after significant service. We thank them for their contributions and look forward to their continuing support and friendship. The newly appointed Directors are Jenny Hilder, Ian Johnstone, and Stefan Kent. All three Directors have been long-time friends and supporters of Police Legacy and we welcome them to the Board.
After the recent State Elections we have a new Police Minister, Mr David Elliot MP, Member for Baulkham Hills. I have had the pleasure of meeting with Mr Elliott, and he has agreed to continue this role’s traditional co-patronage of NSW Police Legacy. In all the discussions I have had with him he is very supportive of the work we do. We are also very fortunate that the new Parliamentary Secretary for Police, Mr Mark Taylor, is a former NSW Police officer and supporter of Police Legacy.
Over the last twelve months we have been raising awareness of the importance of payroll deductions amongst our serving officers. We are now commencing our campaign to raise our regular payroll deductions to at least $5 per fortnight (pre-tax) which will allow us to continue and expand the good work we do in supporting the police family. We look forward to the support of our serving officers.
