Southern Youth Development (Syd) partnerships and contracts manager Leisa de Klerk said it was a great feeling to see the $30,000 fundraising goal for this year’s Toss the Boss event reached by the time the last of the 31 local leaders started to abseil down the 35m drop yesterday.
"We’re pretty happy."
The event was started about eight years ago as a way to give people a way to face their fears and activate their communities in a way that was a bit different from traditional fundraising.
Of the most recent cohort of community leaders, about half had professed to not being good with heights — although all had gone ahead and most enjoyed themselves. It was the first time for all and some had already volunteered to go again next year.
Ms de Klerk said Syd worked with young people aged between 12 and 24 who were disengaged from education or did not know what they wanted to do next.
"Everything that we do is to build them up and support them so that they can take really positive steps forward," Ms de Klerk said.
While demand for the non-profit’s services had significantly increased, funding had not.
About 85% of the young people it worked with had significantly re-engaged over the course of 10 weeks, and those who did not the group would continue to work with.
"We have worked with people for up to 30 weeks, just to get them ready and positive for their next steps."
While yesterday’s event marked the high point of three months’ fundraising there was still a fortnight left for the public to give to the cause, she said.
Firefighter Liam McCall jumped alongside his partner Katie Hendry, with their dog Quake strapped to him.
They were excited to be taking part in a fundraiser for an organisation which did such good work to support young people, Ms Hendry said.
Mr McCall said that while neither of the couple was a boss in their own right, their 14-month-old German shorthaired pointer and springer spaniel crossbreed, whom they had adopted from the SPCA, was something of the boss of their household.
While Quake had been abseiling before at Long Beach, she had never taken the leap from such a height.
She had been a bit nervous getting over the railing but appeared to have enjoyed the rest of the descent, Mr McCall said.
