By Casey Neill
Greater Dandenong businesses will support the Mirabel Foundation through the annual Take a Swing for Charity.
The SEBN golf day will take place at the Sandhurst Club in Skye on Monday 27 February, manager Sandra George announced at the business group’s Christmas industry breakfast at Bunurong in Dandenong South on Thursday 8 December.
The event has raised more than $300,000 for charities during its history.
Mirabel’s Miranda Purchase was thrilled that the foundation was named as the next recipient.
It helps more than 1600 children across Victoria and New South Wales who’ve been abandoned due to their parents’ illicit drug use.
Ms Purchase told the breakfast that she started with Mirabel as a youth worker 10 years ago.
She recalled collecting four children from their grandparents in Greater Dandenong for a respite weekend in Mt Martha.
A five-year-old boy started screaming hysterically as she drove but he was non-verbal, so she had no idea what was wrong.
His siblings eventually explained that she’d driven past a street he used to live in with his mum and he feared she was returning him.
He’d been found locked in a laundry there with another sibling and had been abused.
Ms Purchase said four new families were referred to Mirabel each week and received education, respite and more.
“We try to break the damaging cycle of drug addiction,” she said.
She said a recent social return on investment report found that every $1 invested in Mirabel returned $6.60 to the community.
“These kids live in your area,” she said.
“Drug use affects every area of the community.”
Visit www.greaterdandenong.com to get involved with the golf day, which will also include a dinner and silent auction.
