Wednesday, January 31  

How A Kid Made My Wife Cry - By Giving ME $250!

In this post below I mentioned I'd received my biggest donation yet for my charity bike ride.

I also mentioned that when it was handed over, my wife shed a tear.

Here's why.

Here on the Gold Coast on Australia Day (January 26) they have 2 Citizenship ceremonies.

One being at the Currumbin RSL. After that Citizenship ceremony - where about 60 people took up Australian Citizenship in front of a crowd of 400, they present about 5 Citizenship Awards for people who have contributed greatly to the local community.

My great son Jack (left) was lucky enough to be nominated this year by his Scout Troop Leader in the Youth section.

Lucky To Have Great Role Models

A week before, my wife and I told him he'd been nominated - he does a fair bit of community and charity sort of work, as well as a range of other things.

We then went on to talk about why he'd been nominated and how lucky he was to have such positive role models in his life.

People like his grandparents, Scout leaders, sporting coaches, teachers and the like.

It's such a hugely important part of a kid's life - without strong role models you struggle with things.

Like I say on this page, something like 91% of 13,000 kids cited for a juvenile offence in a study do not have positive adult role models in their lives.

I told Jack that stat.

And The Winner Is.........................

Anyhow, Jack was nervously standing on the stage in front of 400 people when they opened that all important envelope and said "And the winner is...........................Jack Sinclair."

Jack stepped proudly forward and received the Award and an envelope from a true legend here in Australia - Mr Keith Payne.

Keith was the most highly decorated soldier to return from the Vietnam War where he earned a Victoria Cross (amongst many others).

He had the obligatory photos done and came over to join us - me, his mum and brother and sister.

"Here You Go Dad......."

Jack opened up the envelope and handed the contents over to me - a cheque for $250.

"Here you go Dad. You can have that for your ride - hopefully it will help kids who aren't as lucky as me."

That's when my wife shed a tear.

The Best Part Of That Story

The best part of all that is this bit:

Jack's been saving madly to buy himself the new bike he wants. That cheque would have given him enough to buy it. He's still saving.

Brendon

P.S: The other good part (the great part) is, of course, that this kid is my son.
P.P.S: Jack also helped out the event by adding all of the content to the ride site we donated. He also updated the site each day of the ride from reports I phoned in.