An amazing story of community spirit and coincidence: We were walking back from the beach the other day and we were absolutely blown away by a surprise busking band at Tickle Park!
This Coolum musical institution “The Shoplifters” were singing loud and proud, their guitar case was full, and then… they mentioned our names!
These legends have been raising good vibration and mass attention in the park… and funds to the tune of $2,000 for Genetic Cures for Kids. What’s even crazier is we had no idea they had even heard of us!
Our family recently moved to the Sunshine Coast to access the region’s specialist Paediatric services in a focused effort to physically combat the progressive neurodegenerative disease, SPG56, that’s attacking Tallulah Moon.
A few months prior, when we were establishing our foundation Genetic Cures for Kids and its campaign ‘Our Moon’s Mission’, we had stopped at Tickle park and filmed a short video to tell our story.
It just so happened that “The Shoplifters” were busking at Tickle Park on the day of the shoot.
Shoplifters musician Jim Tannion had noticed our family dancing to their music with the camera. But it wasn’t until December when our charitable foundation launched, that he saw the film about Tallulah’s plight and the disease that has taken away her ability to walk, talk and move independently.
Jim had said, “My friend rang me and said ‘I think you’re in this video’ and sent me the link. We had no idea what it was about but when we learned about this family’s fight to cure SPG56, we knew we wanted to help raise some funds for this precious little girl”.
Fellow Shoplifters muso Les Kirkbride said the record fundraising effort ran over two months during the school holidays the community response was amazing. He said the Shoplifters had not only raised important funds, but lifted the spirit of the community and raised important awareness about rare genetic diseases and SPG56.
“It’s been amazing to meet Tallulah and be part of her journey through raising this money with the community, as well as putting good vibes out there.”
“Every person who knows about Tallulah’s story connects with it, and that builds on the positive energy she needs and we all have when we come together as a community.” Les said.
The Shoplifters’ heartfelt fundraising effort took us completely by surprise, and we are so deeply appreciative of their efforts and love. The Shoplifters will continue to play at Coolum’s Tickle Park each Wednesday and Friday morning from 8.00 am to fundraise for community groups who need their help.
And Jim summed it up so well I reckon:
“We love what we do, we love where we live and we love our community.”
“We may be in our 70s, and the hippy shake is more like a hippy break now, but it gives us a whole new lease on life to help people like Tallulah Moon.”
Thank you, Shoplifters! You ROCK!
