Pink & Blue Swim, Walk or Run

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:25): I think this speech may have even more in common actually in fact with the previous speaker, and I am pleased to follow the member for Gibson in her acknowledgment of the fantastic swim in her electorate that raises money for the Cancer Council. In consecutive weeks along the Adelaide coastline we have surf clubs and community groups raising fantastic funds for much-needed research and support for cancer charities in South Australia.

In my area that means the Pink & Blue Swim, Walk or Run at the West Beach Surf Club. The event has gone from strength to strength over the years it has run, to the point where more than 1,500 participants took part in the swim this year, whether that was a 250-metre swim, a 500-metre swim, a kilometre swim or varying distances of walks or runs. In the very early stages of this event, there were simply a number of West Beach Surf Club swimmers who came out and had a swim around. I was there in the very early days of this event and have seen the progress and the growth of it and the significant funds that have been raised each and every year. It is truly a testament to the West Beach Surf Club and the organising committee who hold this event each and every year.

I was pleased to hear that more than $100,000 was raised through the event this year. When added to the years before, it means that the surf club has raised more than $700,000 in total, with all of those proceeds going to St Andrews and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of South Australia, to support breast and prostate cancer research and support. That number, being so significant, is made even more special by the fact that this is a community organisation that delivers life-saving services to our community, that runs a bistro, that does a range of other things for our local community and, instead of raising funds to support its own operations, they have decided go out and raise significant funds to support charities that absolutely need it.

The West Beach community more broadly get on board each and every year and, in fact, to the point that the organising committee—whether that be Paul Rafanelli, Melinda, Lynne and others who are involved in that organising committee—was recognised by the City of Charles Sturt, not for the first time, for being the community event of the year. That is much-deserved recognition for the organising committee and, more broadly, the West Beach community and surf club for the amazing work they do in regard to that event.

While the dress code may be slightly less interesting perhaps than the swim a little further down the coast, we do have everyone in pink and blue, wearing the appropriate cap and recognising on that day family members, friends or loved ones who have been affected by those cancers. That is really at the crux of it and what drove this event to get started: people at the surf club with personal connections to cancers that have affected the community more broadly. While each and every year we appreciate and recognise the funds that are raised, we understand the personal connections and stories from where this event came.

I would also like to recognise some of the significant events that have happened around the local community in the last couple of weeks. We have had the opening of the Henley library along Seaview Road, the redeveloped Henley library, which has seen a consolidation of the Henley community centre. I am really excited about the fact that the Henley Town Hall, which had largely sat unused for many parts of the year, is now well and truly integrated into that space at the corner of North Street and Seaview Road and Military Road.

Now we essentially see a community hub, where we have the RSL positioned with the library and more broadly the community centre, all effectively working together and making the most of what is one of the most significant heritage assets in our local community. It is fantastic to see that building restored to its glory and being used by our local community now each and every day.

We have had the Zdravei Bulgarian Festival, academic assemblies and sports club presentations. There really is no more apt truism in the western suburbs than that when the sun comes out, so does our community get about. I look forward to meeting and seeing many of our community members over the few weeks that we have left of the summer period. We will get out there with our bathers and perhaps have a club swim at the surf club sometime soon too.