Message from the Executive Chairman - Gene Miles

WHAT a great success the inaugural All Stars match was for rugby league.

Aside from the terrific spectacle of the match itself, won 16-12 by the Indigenous All Stars in a thriller in front of a capacity crowd at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast, it was very satisfying for the footy public to savour such a week of positive feeling around the code.

I think the concept is here to stay. But I also think the sheer popularity of the match may mean its future at Skilled Park may be limited.

We all know the Gold Coast is a great venue, but with tickets for the game selling out so fast and so early, I think we will probably see next year's event move 100km or so up the road to the 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium.

Here at the Former Origin Greats, we were very pleased to participate in and share in the success of the All Stars concept.

Obviously we were very privileged and pleased to host the All Stars lunch on the Wednesday before the game.

A good crowd of around 400 people turned out, and the occasion was a great success.

We are very thankful to the National Rugby League for asking us to be involved, and also to the players and staff from both teams for their cooperation in bringing the lunch together.

The Indigenous All Stars team deserves special praise however. Being our special guests at the lunch, the boys were hammered relentlessly throughout the afternoon by eager autograph hunters.

But, like in the game itself on Saturday night, they hung in there right to the final whistle.

The lunch also gave us a boost on the fund-raising front.

We auctioned off a jersey from each of the teams, as well as a half-and-half jersey, and we raised about $18,000, which was a great result.

Before the lunch, of course, we held the official launch of the Achieving Results Through Indigenous Education program - known more commonly to us as Project A.R.T.I.E.

We were very pleased to welcome the Federal Minister for Sport Kate Ellis, NRL CEO David Gallop and Geoff Carr from the Australian Rugby League to help us launch our new program, that saw Big Wendell Sailor named as the official ambassador for Project A.R.T.I.E.

The coverage from the media was excellent, and shows the greater profile that the FOGS and our charity programs are generating in the wider community.

My congratulations to Vicki Wilson and Peter Falcongreen for the hard yards they have done in getting Project A.R.T.I.E. up and running.

It is a very exciting time for us at FOGS to see this program take-off. What makes it even more pleasing though is seeing how excited the students are about being involved.

That is a great result for us already.

The other piece of exciting news for FOGS out of the All Stars weekend was the announcement by our patron, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Kevin Rudd, that the Gold Coast will host a FOGS Indigenous Employment and Careers Expo for the next two years.

Originally, we had planned to continue with our original six Expos held around the state in 2010. But their amazing success in 2009 and sheer weight of demand has meant we have no added a seventh stop on our Indigenous Employment and Careers Expo tour.

Before the All Stars game at Skilled Park, we hosted a little mini-Expo outside the stadium to show the local people what our Expos look like and what we are aiming to achieve.

The response was very positive for the entire two hours we were outside the stadium, so we are positive that when the time comes later next month to host a full-sclae Expo at the Gold Coast, it will be another successful venture.

As a sidelight to all the action that was happening with the superstars of rugby league being on the Coast for the All Stars game, I thought I would share a more private moment that reinforced to me what a great code and culture we are a part of.

For me, the biggest night of the whole week of activities was when they locked-down Dreamworld on Thursday night, to allow the players from both team to share the park with 120 Indigenous kids that have either been in the FOGS program or are about to join it.

The kids spent two hours with both teams, as part of an NRL initiative, and shared a barbeque together before taking in all the action of Dreamworld.

It was exceptional, and I think the players enjoyed themselves just as much as the kids.

The players buddied up with the kids, and took them on all the rides and the water park as well. It was good quality stuff.

The kids were just over the moon. I wish I could find the words to describe the smiles on those faces.

They didn't want to go home at the end of the day. I think a few of the players may have felt the same way. There were a lot of players you could see

really got a lot out of the experience.

It was something special to behold.

Until the next update, take care.

 
Cheers,
Geno