While the Swans and Cats will collide in a huge top-eight battle at the SCG on Thursday night, the evening will get underway with a pre-game lap of honour for a crucial cause.
A total of 140 players and parents from the Glebe Greyhounds and Ocean Grove Collendina Cobras will parade around the SCG boundary in support of River’s Gift, the largest source of funding for sudden infant death syndrome research in Australia.
SIDS is also known as cot or crib death and refers to the sudden unexplained passing of a baby.
The Greyhounds are a club based in Sydney and the Cobras just outside Geelong.
River’s Gift general manager Karl Waddell says it will be “massive” to have the Greyhounds and Cobras bring in the Swans’ home game.
“To have presence on the AFL stage is really big for us,” Waddell said.
“We’ve built a charity from scratch and six and a half years on we’re going to have presence on a national football stage, which is just massive for us. It’s great coverage and to have the young kids fundraising on our behalf and honouring our little man and our charity is really special.
“The fundraising is the bread and butter. It’s what keeps us driving our initiatives. We’ve raised more than a million dollars in six and a half years and that’s not with any government funding. It’s all community-based charity-giving.”
River’s Gift was founded in 2011 after the passing of the son of Waddell and his wife Alex.
River Jak Adam was born in July of 2011 and passed away in his cot in November later that year.
His parents established River’s Gift off their own bat and have since held a number of marquee fundraising events, invested in SIDS research and raised a wealth of awareness.
A host of supporters have given the campaign their full weight of support in the Great Ocean Road Marathon and on the Kokoda Trail.
Thursday’s lap of honour is the next in line to back the vital cause, while Waddell will also be presented signed Sydney and Geelong guernseys.
Waddell says it will be “fantastic” to have the chance to fundraise ahead of a highly anticipated clash.
“They’re two big rivals,” Waddell said.
“There are years of tradition there and being a Geelong-based charity, to have Geelong play at the SCG is probably the best game we could ask for. To have our local side, the Cats, playing in Sydney against the Swans and two teams vying for a finals spot and promising to have a big presence come September – it’s huge. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Waddell said the future looked bright for River’s Gift.
“We’re really starting to build a presence in the community’s eyes,” Waddell said.
“We’re really starting to take our message and our awareness and our presence across the country and across the globe.”
The lap of honour will begin at 6:50pm and the game at 7:20.
