Men’s Mental Health Charity A Chance For Change (ACFC) will hold its second ever charity golf day at Hills International Golf Course in Jimboomba on December 1.
The inaugural boys’ day on the greens event on June 2 was a resounding success for the charity in both supporting men with mental health issues, and in terms of funds raised, making the charity keen to stage it again, according to local ambassador Nathan St Ledger.
“We focus first and foremost on the day being a good day, that’s what we want,” he said.
“The whole idea of the day is to lift the spirits of blokes who have been doing it tough.
“Any money we do raise we will put forward towards starting some training for all our ambassadors.”
Mr St Ledger said the day will be highlighted by the appearance of two ex-NRL players, adding there is still a chance to win the opportunity to play alongside the former professional footballers.
“If people get on our Facebook before Monday we’ve got Daniel Vidot and Matt Ballin, two guys who played in the NRL, they’re coming and we’re giving away two tickets to play with them for the day,” he said.
“People need to go onto the ACFC Facebook page, click on the event, they will see the post in there, they’ve got to like a share the post and tag a couple of mates in it and then we will pick the winners at random.”
Mr St Ledger said the day offers the charity a chance to reach out to men suffering from mental health problems and provide real world experience for them to draw upon.
“We have 18 teams, 72 blokes playing, plus some blokes there just helping out so we’ve got around 80 to 100 blokes present,” he said.
“Guys that have been through troubles before and guys who are going through it right now.
“It gives them an opportunity in a non-conventional way to have a chat or reach out to someone or check-in on them.
“We find with blokes that if you break it down and you get it to that grassroots level in a comfortable environment you’ll find blokes that need to reach out will reach out.
“With that ice breaker of knowing that there is other guys there that have been through a similar situation it gives them an opportunity to reach out themselves.”
“That’s where we get all our success from is that grassroots level.”
Mr St Ledger said the charity is thankful to Hills International Golf Course for allowing them to stage what will be their second boys’ day on the greens event at the course.
“They’re awesome Rob and big Dan over there at the club, they have been great,” he said.
“They are just easy to work with, they let us do our thing so we can run the day the way we see fit, which makes for a relaxed environment.
“It’s 80 blokes getting out, having a hit of golf, having a laugh and not having to worry about their day to day stresses.
“You’ve got four hours to check-in on your mate and see how he is doing and that is sometimes all it takes.”