By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE ACE Foundation had its “genesis” over 20 years ago.
At the charity’s inaugural fund-raiser on Friday night, chairman Leon Shapero told the more than 100 guests gathered in the Cranbourne Turf Club that the origins of ACE could be traced back to the early ’90s, when Dr Shapero first set up the Thompson Road Clinic in Cranbourne.
The ACE Foundation, which was officially incorporated by Dr Shapero in August last year, aims to encourage, support and help educate local teenage students facing disadvantage.
All the money raised from last week’s dinner will go directly to the children.
“ACE as an acronym means Aiding Casey Education. And as a number of you in this room know, it had its genesis over 20 years ago,” Dr Shapero said in his opening address.
“The mission statement or vision of ACE, that you may have read on the screens around the room, is to assist in the educational pursuits of disadvantaged children, predominantly in Years 6 to 10, in the City of Casey, and that the interpretation of disadvantage is fairly broad – it may mean anything from language, culture, socio-economic, physical, family fracture, it has a broad interpretation.
“Over 28 years ago, I started working in Cranbourne and it was soon obvious that there were a lot of very clever and capable kids in this area who don’t reach their full potential, and I know there are a lot of people in this room that have seen that over the years as well.
“So I decided to create a foundation.”
Principals and teachers from many Casey schools attended the fund-raiser, which was emceed by comedian Elliott Goblet and featured many performers and special guests including a Jerry Lewis impersonator (Jessie Tabone), magician Anthony Di Masi, cartoonist Justin Lloyd, and singers Liza Dimitriadis and Jayme Lee Hanekom.
To top it off, there was entertainment from The Headmasters Apprentices – a band made up completely of school principals.
Also in attendance were the other ACE board members, including Casey Councillor Amanda Stapledon, Cranbourne Secondary College principal Ken Robinson, Courtney Gardens Primary School principal Loretta Hamilton, Federal Parliament political staffer Janet Halsall, Highview Accounting owner Silvio Marinelli and Teresa Muratore.
While ACE is still in its early stages, the foundation rewards students by supllying funding allocated by the schools, and, in particular, encouragement awards for children who, their teachers identify, would benefit greatly from them.
A study centre has also been set up at the Thompson Road clinic – a private area upstairs supervised by university students who help tutor high school students.
ACE is also assisting principal Ken Robinson in running a catch-up education program at Cranbourne Secondary for young pregnant girls and mothers of young children.
“It’s inspiring to see young girls, with very young children, and varying levels of support, find the courage to return to study and have the facilities provided for them that Ken and his staff provide,” Dr Shapero said.
“So we’ve been very proud to be involved in that as well.”
Mr Robinson echoed this sentiment, praising ACE’s support of his school and the many others in Casey.
“You don’t often get philanthropic organisations actually coming in to schools and doing stuff, it’s really hard to get funding,” he said.
“I see it as a way to support the kids, kids that are disadvantaged.”
Fellow board member and Casey Councillor Amanda Stapledon said it was heart-warming to see the community throwing its support behind ACE and local children at the dinner last week.
“We need it because our kids sometimes fall between the gaps,” she said.
“We need to be able to give them every opportunity to be the best they can be … I really believe if we give children a helping hand, they’ll shine.”
