Last night, Cam and I were lucky ducks and attended The Mirabel Foundation’s Tenth Birthday Party. The lovely people at The Prince hosted the event, with super delicious food by Circa. If you aren’t familiar with Mirabel – they launched ten years ago with a big-bang-of-a-benefit concert at the old Prince of Wales. A few really great people, lead by Jane Rowe, decided to get off their bottoms and make a big difference to some ace little people.
The Mirabel Foundation supports children who have been abandoned or orphaned due to parental substance abuse of one kind or another. These kids sometimes end up in the care of other, often unprepared, family members. Mirabel makes sure these kids and their carers aren’t forgotten – and helps to gently and kindly piece them back together. Sometimes that piecing can take a LOT of time… lucky the Mirabel people are super patient, huh?
But back to last night, Rebecca Barnard, Ella Hooper and Deborah Conway sang. Julia Zemiro hosted in her stocking-feet. And special Jane Rowe talked about Mirabel’s amazing ten years – and all the great stuff they have achieved.
Here’s some stuff you might not know.
- Mirabel originally supported just a handful of children locally – and now supports more then 700 kids throughout NSW and Victoria.
- Three children are referred to Mirabel each week – that means those three children have lost their parent/s to substance abuse and are no longer in their care. And that’s three children each week who are going through some crap stuff that they didn’t ask for.
- Kids that Mirabel supports are often in the care of grieving grandparents. These grandparents may be in their EIGHTIES (and have just lost their own grown-up child to drugs ). They are left to care for often VERY small grand-children full time. Mirabel supports families like these.
- You can read more about some of the Mirabel kids here.
- You can donate money to Mirabel here.
- Or you can make a soft toy for the Mirabel Christmas Toy Drive and send it to us!
- The rum cocktails last night tasted like medicine
- The gazpacho was super-delicious and I can’t wait for Summer!
- Leo’s Spaghetti Bar on Fitzroy St has had a make-over and it’s a bit spooky
- The tram takes a VERY LONG TIME to go from Fitzroy to St Kilda
- Cam loves Julia Zemiro
- Jessie Hooper is a very sweet guitar playing boy