Team Eammon

Eamon Petersen's family set themselves a fundraising target of $300 for their first Buddy Walk effort, and would have been very pleased to have reached it. So they were thrilled (and Down Syndrome NSW was very grateful), when with the support of their family, friends and their local Maitland community they raised more than $2000 through his Buddy Walk Hero fundraising page, when they took part in Buddy Walk - Australia: Newcastle for the first time in October.

Jess Chalker interviewed Eamon's mum, Kim, for this summer's issue of Down Syndrome NSW News and Update (read it here on p 2). Kim said then, "We want to work with the community to create a culture that fully accepts our little boy and all the other children like Eamon. ... A dear friend of ours said ‘that’s what mates do, support each other'. Our friends and family can see how important it is to us to have Eamon out in the community living his life to the fullest so they can see that the money raised from this event can only benefit him in the long run."

Pictured from left: Hannah Rose (QBE Foundation), Natalie Grogan, Eamon, Kim, Cohen

And now this little boy's presence in his family's community has resulted in a very generous donation of $10,000 from the QBE Foundation (Eamon's devoted godmother, Natalie Grogan works with QBE and successfully applied to the Foundation for the donation), that will make a significant contribution to that cultural development.

Eamon took Kim and his brother Cohen along for the cheque presentation.

Many, many thanks to the QBE Foundation, to the Petersens, to Natalie and to Eamon!