By BRIDGET COOK
THE Rotary Club of Cranbourne has swung into action to lend a helping hand to make life a lot easier for a local family.
The club held its annual charity golf day last month at Ranfurlie Golf Course and managed to raise $10,000 with 90 participants.
Last week the proceeds of that day were donated to the Patella family from Narre Warren South to help purchase a wheelchair modified car to safely and easily transport their son Damien around.
Damien, 6, has severe global brain damage, epilepsy, microcephaly, and hypotonic cerebral palsy and is unable to crawl, walk, talk or feed himself.
His mother Wendy said he now weighs about 26 kilograms, so it was becoming a lot harder for her to transport Damien around.
“Damien is growing quickly and I now struggle to lift Damien out of his wheelchair and into the booster seat in the car,” she said.
“Currently I keep bumping one or both of our heads on the door frame and have injured both my shoulders and sprained my ribs lifting him.”
Ms Patella said she needs to raise $70,000 to purchase a suitable car, like a Kia Carnival, and then have it modified to cater for a wheelchair.
The government provides $10,000 towards the modification, which costs a total of $34,000.
Ms Patella said the donation from the Rotary Club had doubled her fundraising efforts so far.
“It reminds us all that there are some very good people in our community, willing to lend a hand,” she said.
“When I accepted the cheque in person I thanked Cranbourne Rotary for their time, consideration, understanding and generosity toward my family and I.
“I didn’t expect that a 15 minute presentation about us to the Cranbourne Rotary members would have resulted in such an amazing donation.”
Ms Patella is now seeking support in any way possible from the rest of the community.
“Next year I will be approaching local businesses for donations and I hope to sell six advertising positions on the doors of the new vehicle for $3500 to $5000,” she said.
People can also make a www.GoFundMe.com/DamiensHelpingHands or search ‘Damien’s Helping Hands’ to follow his journey on Facebook.
