The Port Stephens Family of League kick off club day with special guests Mark Hughes and Richard Jones was a terrific success at Soldiers Point Bowling Club last Friday.
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A terrific roll up of more than 155 people supported the day with visitors from Singleton, Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Newcastle.
Waratah-Mayfield Old Boys attended as a well as the overwhelming support of locals including Fingal Bay Bomboras RLFC, Nelson Bay Junior Marlins Footy Club, the local Westpac Rescue Helicopter support group, Harbourside Haven and Nelson Bay Rugby Club,
The local business community were once again generous with their help for auction and raffle prizes.
The special guests Hughes, from the Mark Hughes Foundation, and Jones from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, provided excellent entertainment with funny yarns from their rugby league playing day and work with their respective charities.
The master of ceremony Charlie Haggett's probing questions was also an added highlight to the day.
A gentle reminder from both Richard and Mark that the last minute grand final victory in 1997 engineered by Joey Johns and Darren Albert for the Newcastle Knights was against Charlie's club Manly Sea Eagles.
Charlie recalled that he was in the Manly coaching box with Bob Fulton at the time and had just predicted the team's would be going into extra time. Needless to say Fulton's reply to Haggett was less than flattering.
Mark's fund raising activities has been enormous with treks with former teammates on the Kokoda Trail and two journeys to Mount Everest base camp.
His team has sold more than one million beanies and raised $30 million through the foundation as the research team continue to look for a cure for this insidious disease of brain cancer.
The statistics are frightening. More children die of brain cancer than any other disease and more people under 40 die of brain cancer then any other cancer.
Family of League secretary Peter Arnold said the feedback from the event was heartwarming with the Soldiers Point Bowling Club caterers, bar and event crew outstanding in their support of the day. They also made donation to the Mark Hughes Foundation.
The Port Stephens Family of League are in awe of the generosity of the local community with record returns from raffle and auction items on the day.
It was a nice way to pay tribute to both Mark and Richard's charity work and also help the men women and children of the rugby league family who may be doing it tough.
