David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I met with a local business owner Angelo Cusumano. Angelo has experienced immense tragedy in his life. His father, a local business owner, was tragically murdered in December 1995, while Angelo was still a child. Angelo and his family are raising funds to build a trauma centre for children affected by homicide. This trauma centre will be called Grace's Place. Grace's Place is a world-first residential trauma recovery centre which will provide support, therapeutic programs and coping skills to assist with the deep trauma experienced by children who are affected by homicide. The centre will provide dedicated support to children and young people who have lost a relative or another loved one.

Angelo is working hard to raise funds for this project. Since March 2016, $13,000 has been raised on the mycause website. An event has been organised to raise funds for Grace's Place. The event, Angels with Grace, will be a fundraising dinner held at Conca D'oro, in Riverwood, on 18 June. All funds raised will go towards funding the trauma centre. I certainly encourage our local community in Banks to support this cause by attending the fundraising dinner. Angelo and his family hope to raise $100,000 on the night to go towards funding the centre and they acknowledge the extensive support they have received from the Homicide Victims Support Group. It is difficult to think of a more worthy cause than Grace's Place, and I would like to thank Angelo Cusumano and his family for their immense courage in taking on this project to help children affected by homicide.