The Cherish the Children Foundation seeks to make a difference by supporting important causes and helping tackle issues facing young people today, while laying the foundations for a more secure future.

With these goals driving everything we do, the Cherish the Children Foundation has a special interest in three key areas:

  • Assisting disadvantaged children through a variety of causes.
  • Reducing the impacts, and raising awareness, of childhood obesity.
  • Protecting the environment in leaving a legacy for our children.

Supporting causes linked to disadvantaged children has always been a priority of the Cherish the Children Foundation. As something very close to our heart, we are particularly concerned with helping emerging charities find their feet financially as a catalyst to future growth.

This approach has had great success in establishing the resources necessary for smaller charitable groups to increase their efforts across a variety of important causes. It also helps individual charities grow to such an extent that they are able to fund-raise independently, which in turn leads to bigger and better results on behalf of the children they represent.

For examples of causes the Cherish the Children Foundation has and continues to support are:

Glendyne Education and Training Centre
The Pyjama Foundation
Exodus Tutorial Centre, Gladstone


GLENDYNE EDUCATION AND TRAINING CENTRE

The foundation has supported Glendyne for approximately 10 years.

In 2008, the foundation donated $200,000 to Glendyne to aid in the construction of their new administration building.

Glendyne provides an ultimate school environment for at risk children, many of whom have dropped out of school, who need an alternative education program to help turn their lives around.

Glendyne operates in a rural setting on a 140 acre farm away from the distraction of suburban life and provides a non-threatening learning environment that is enhanced by a committed team of dedicated and caring staff.

The whole focus of Glendyne’s operation is building positive relationships, and providing a holistic approach to education from school to work, within the context of a caring and supportive environment. For more information, go to www.glendyne.qld.edu.au

THE PYJAMA FOUNDATION

In November 2008, $35,000 was donated to the Pyjama Foundation to help with the expansion of their activities on the Sunshine Coast.

The Pyjama Foundation is a Brisbane based not-for-profit organisation committed to giving children in care the same opportunities in life as other children. Through its volunteer “reading angels” it delivers read aloud programs to assist children in foster and alternative care in Australia improve their literacy.

It is all about assisting children whose literacy levels and self-esteem need an extra boost.

For more information, go to www.thepyjamafoundation.org.au

EXODUS TUTORIAL CENTRE, GLADSTONE

The centre is designed to cater for children at educational risk who have begun a cycle of literacy failure in regular classrooms.

The centre works with selected students to enable them to become functionally literate and return to mainstream secondary education.

Eat well be active

The Queensland Government is helping to create an environment that enables children, young people and their families to eat well and be active every day. With almost one quarter of Australian children overweight or obese, the impact on individuals, families and communities is significant. Overcoming this epidemic requires a concerted effort from all parts of the community.

Cherish the Children Foundation's patron, Pat Rafter, in the role of Ambassador, assisted the Queensland Government to launch its Eat Well Be Active campaign in 2007. The campaign aims to combat the obesity crisis and encourage Queenslanders to get active by promoting healthy eating and being active.

In March 2008 as part of the Eat Well Be Active campaign, the Queensland Government launched the Find Your 30 campaign featuring Eat Well Be Active Ambassador Pat Rafter, which aims to encourage all Queenslanders to include at least 30 minutes of activity in their daily routines by promoting simple strategies, such as walking the kids to school, getting off the bus a stop early, taking the stairs rather than the lift and going for a walk at lunchtime.

Statistics indicate less than 50% of the Queensland adult population is sufficiently active to receive health benefits, and two out of three males and one in two females are overweight. Even more concerning is the fact that, in Queensland, in the first year of school, 17% of boys and 20% of girls are already overweight. For most of these children this means they will then become obese adults. The Find Your 30 campaign aims to turn these disturbing trends around.

Pat encourages all Queenslanders to ‘Find Their 30’ – and set themselves on the path to a healthier, more active lifestyle.

More information can be found at www.your30.qld.gov.au which offers practical suggestions designed to promote healthy eating and being active.

The Cherish the Children Foundation was established in 1998 by our patron, Pat Rafter, with the donation of his Australian Open earnings. The foundation is in essence an “umbrella” organisation representing Pat’s collective charitable pursuits to assist disadvantaged children in every way possible. Key to our fund raising philosophy is to ensure 100 per cent of all monies donated are passed on to worthy causes. To achieve this, we have actively maintained low overheads. We have no paid employees and expenses such as office space, secretarial support, website construction, audit and ASIC fees are all kindly donated by our supporters.

The Cherish the Children Foundation seeks to leverage the high-profile nature of our patron by establishing strategic relationships with prominent individuals and organizations, so as to tap into the resources and networks necessary to make a real impact in our areas of focus. This strategy has lead to influential partnerships with state and local governments on issues such as climate change and childhood obesity. It has also enabled the foundation to put a spotlight on smaller charitable organizations and to raise the profile of a variety of worthy children’s causes.

Preserving the environment for our children today and future generations is one of the biggest challenges we face. At the Cherish the Children Foundation we strongly believe that a long-term solution requires a multi-layered approach involving government leadership and the support of the community at large.

The foundation plays its part by being a catalyst to change — calling for the appropriate regulatory framework to support environmental initiatives, while encouraging individuals to embrace the challenge before us.

One way we are playing a driving role in fund raising for environmental causes is the launch of the Cherish The Environment Fund with Ipswich City Council. The initiative is designed to raise awareness of environmental issues and generate funds to facilitate tree planting by the community as a way to offset carbon emissions.

Pride of Australia Awards

The Pride of Australia medal is a national award program that honours everyday Australians who do extraordinary things - the unsung heroes of our communities whose contribution to Australian life is not widely known by the general public.

These people are not high-profile Australians. They might be a friend, workmate, neighbour, your child's teacher, the local police officer or fire fighter or simply someone who has made your community a better place to live – you can even nominate yourself.

Cherish the Children Foundation is committed to preserving the environment and as such support the Pride of Australia Awards with particular interest in the environment category award. The environment category awards a medal to an Australian or group of Australians whose actions prove that by making one degree of difference to their local environment, people can collectively make a difference to the broader community.

The other 9 categories awarded are:

  1. Outstanding Bravery
  2. Child of Courage
  3. Young Leader
  4. Emergency Services
  5. Community Spirit
  6. Inspiration
  7. Fair Go
  8. Care and Compassion
  9. Serving Australia

If you would like to obtain more information go to www.prideofaustralia.com.au or call the information line on 1800 888 831.

The awards are implemented at a state and territory level in the following News Limited newspapers - The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph; Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun; The Courier Mail and The Sunday Mail; The Advertiser and Sunday Mail; The Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian; Northern Territory News and Sunday Territorian and The Sunday Times.

We urge you to nominate people in all categories as they all relate to decent grassroots community behaviour which at the end of the day is what has made Australia such a great place to live.

The third youngest of nine siblings, Pat Rafter was born in Mt Isa, Queensland in 1972 and grew up to become one of the greats of Australian tennis. Throughout his tennis career, his commitment, generosity and down-to-earth approach have earned him great respect among sporting peers and the community.

His playing career commenced in earnest in 1991 when Pat turned pro. He went on to win the US Open in 1997 and then successfully defend his title in 1998. In 1999, he became the first Australian since John Newcombe to reach a number one world ranking and was Runner Up Finalist at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001.

Pat was named Australian of the Year in 2002 and these days enjoys fishing, playing golf and going to the beach with his young family.

The Cherish the Children Foundation is jointly directed by Louise Rafter, Jocelyn Rafter, Steve Rafter and Shane O’Kane.

Our administration manager Linda Cornell is only too happy to respond to all general enquiries and can be contacted by e-mail on lcornell@focuspg.com.au

Registered Office Details:
Registered Name: Cherish the Children Foundation Limited
ABN No: 51 091 031 391
Address: PO Box 1450
Maroochydore, QLD, 4558


During the formative years of the Cherish the Children Foundation financial support from the community was invaluable in helping us assist key causes. As we have matured as an organisation, we have been able to establish a range of strategic relationships that have proven far more effective in reaching our goals and those of the charities we support than cash donations.

For this reason, we no longer accept donations from the community and instead encourage financial support to go directly to selected causes. However, we will continue to support the fund raising efforts of a range of causes with which we are affiliated, primarily through personal appearances of our patron at key events.