Club makes dreams come true

Dreams really can come true for those who truly deserve it, and the Cowboys Leagues Club was proud to reward some very special “angels” at the Cowboys Vs Sharks and Cowboys Vs Eels games earlier this year. As part of the North Queensland Cowboys Field of Dreams Program, the Club was honoured to donate 30 tickets for each game to 30 worthy “Pyjama Angels” from Townsville’s Pyjama Foundation.

The Pyjama Foundation is a national charity organisation, with local branches in Townsville, Cairns and Mackay, which aims to support children living in foster care by providing free learning-based mentoring by volunteers called Pyjama Angels.

Cowboys Leagues Club General Manager Clint Williams was proud to be able to give back to such a deserving local charity.

“In 2019, the Club has donated over $9 million to the North Queensland community since opening, and the Field of Dreams program is another important element of continuing to give back to the community that supports us. As a community-focused club, we respect the impact the Pyjama Angel volunteers are having on the youth in our town, and being able to reward them for their hard work in our region is a special opportunity,” Mr Williams said.

Established in 2004, Pyjama Foundation founder Bronwyn Sheehan decided to offer hope and a more positive outlook to children in care, after learning the statistics of poor literacy and numeracy levels of foster children often leading to a lifetime of disadvantage.

The Pyjama Foundation’s Townsville coordinator Melanie Vaughan said, “The Love of Learning program matches Pyjama Angels with a child in care with the aim of improving their learning skills, with over 3,500 hours of free tuition offered in 2019 alone.”

“We currently have 100 Pyjama Angels in Townsville visiting 103 children; they visit the same child every week for up to 1.5 hours to read books aloud, play educational games and work on their numeracy skills. The volunteers are there to develop the child’s self-efficiency, a love of learning and to demonstrate that the child is valued and loved,” Ms Vaughan said.

“We are very fortunate to have recruited North Queensland Cowboys player John Asiata as one of our volunteers. Of course every child would want a Cowboys player as their mentor and we thought it only fair to share John with as many children as possible. For this reason, John plays a very special role, as a roving Pyjama Angel and has visited over 60 children in our program to share his love of music and football,” Ms Vaughn revealed.

Partner of the Field of Dreams program since 2007, the Cowboys Leagues Club is looking forward to donating further tickets in August to Cootharinga North QLD, another worthy organisation, and to many more worthy organisations in future years.

If you are interested in becoming a Pyjama Angel, want to learn more about the Pyjama Foundation or want to register for National Pyjama Day visit www.thepyjamafoundation.com