Maddie, a Communications and Editorial Specialist at St Jude’s for the last four and half years, has always had long, beautiful, curly hair.

Or she used to, anyway. In May 2020, she shaved her head to raise funds for St Jude’s and today she has short, beautiful, curly hair.

“When I told people, ‘I’ll shave my head if I can raise this amount,’ I got so many laughs because my hair was almost like my trademark. I had long, waist-length, massive, curly hair. I’d never had short hair,” Maddie recalls.

Despite the trademark status of Maddie’s hair, she considered it a small price to pay in order to help St Jude’s. “I knew I wanted to do a big fundraiser of some sort. I was supposed to go home last year for a visit in May, but then with COVID-19 I couldn’t and I knew I would be staying here (in Tanzania). So I thought, well, people could use a bit of a giggle!” Maddie laughs.

Maddie created a GoFundMe page and shared it from her Facebook and Instagram accounts to encourage donations. Overnight, she hit her fundraising goal and her friends encouraged her to increase her goal. Soon, Maddie had raised $4,600 and decided it was time for the big shave.

“I borrowed some clippers but I forgot to put on the attachment to do a number six length. So I botched it completely and my hair was down to the scalp, as bald as you could go. It was so, so cold! But, there was also the feeling of elation, because I’d done something good for the school which was beyond just giving time and it’d brought a smile to people’s faces,” Maddie says.

Not everyone needs to shave their head in order to fundraise for St Jude’s, but Maddie has a few words for people considering any sort of fundraiser, “Put yourself out of your comfort zone. Do something different and wacky if you can and try to link in stories of the people here at St Jude’s. More than anything, the stories of our Tanzanian staff, students and graduates will convince people to donate and support. Put yourself out there, be brave and have a go,” she says.

Chris and his friends visited Tanzania and St Jude’s in January 2020, just before COVID-19 turned the world upside-down. “We met the teachers, students and some of the families and it highlighted how important the school was in changing the lives of many, as well as for the future of Tanzania,” he says.

Chris, Jayson and Dan came up with a unique idea. “One of the guys is a part owner of a local brewery and we all liked playing poker so we thought it would be great to combine the two – a poker tournament in a brewery,” Chris remembers. So far, Chris and his friends have held two poker fundraisers. A portion of each player’s entry fee is a donation to St Jude’s and on the day of the tournament there’s an auction to raise further funds for St Jude’s.

“We have approximately 40 players who progress through a series of rounds to a final table,” Chris explains. “We sent the message around to all of our friends and from there word of mouth has spread.”

The tournaments have been a huge success, both in terms of fundraising and spreading the word about St Jude’s. “Before we start the tournament we always explain to everyone our experience at St Jude’s and why we are doing this… Everyone has been really supportive and many have dug deep in their pockets to donate more. It’s great to see,” Chris says.

To date, the friends have donated over AU $5000 to the school following their poker tournaments.

We’re so grateful for the way Chris and his friends have used their creativity to help St Jude’s and excited to hear that they’re planning another fundraising tournament for February 2022.

Andie Lowe, a long-time supporter of The School of St Jude organised a ‘Distance Dinner for St Jude’s’ intending to raise $10,000. Amazingly, Andie has already made $10,000 reaching her set target, but she has high hopes to raise even more funds.

Andie is selling dinner boxes via her website. “Everyone who purchases a dinner box will sit down on 18 October to enjoy an African inspired dinner. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we can’t all enjoy dining together, so this is a way to feel connected, from a distance! ” she explained.

She added, “I hope to have the support of Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) teachers, students and broader connections to participate. I’ll be connecting with people through social media and reaching out to friends, family and my parents and work colleagues.”

Andie visited St Jude’s last year on a school trip with MLC, thus igniting her passion to fundraise for the school when she returned home.

You too can support Andie to raise funds for St Jude’s. Click to visit her website and purchase a dinner box;

Andrew is gearing up to challenge himself for St Jude’s by riding Red Hill in Canberra 41 times this October.  In supporting and raising funds for St Jude’s, Andrew has previously cycled alone and unsupported across Tanzania covering a distance of about 1600km.

“I was planning to come back to Tanzania in 2021 for the next great ride, but due to COVID-19 travel restrictions that is not going to happen now.  As a substitute, I'm planning to ride up Red Hill in Canberra 41 times on 17 October. That will equal the elevation gain of going up Mount Kilimanjaro – unfortunately, it won't be quite the same experience as the real thing, but I will be thinking of St Jude's on the day.”

To support Andrew’s challenge for St Jude’s, visit here

You too can take a cycling challenge or physical challenge this October and raise funds for St Jude’s. REGISTER your challenge here

Not only have they been supporters for the past six years, but they went further earlier last year TechnologyOne officially partnered with St Jude’s to provide IT technology that has transformed the school’s operational processes. The company’s employees raised an additional $10,000 that went towards ‘Funding the salary of one of the IT teachers for an entire year.’

“TechnologyOne has enabled our Managers to now see real-time transactions which means that they no longer wait until the following month to keep track of their expenditure. We have also just rolled out the Enterprise Budgeting Module. This brings an enormous change to the budget process which has had to be completed in numerous spreadsheets in the past,” Finance Manager, Johnbosco Heshima.

 Adding to the same sentiments, Beyond St Jude’s (BSJ) Manager, Vivian said, “TechnologyOne has been a lifesaver, quite literally! Since the BSJ program started in 2015, we have solely depended on excel sheets for all data recording and facilitation of payments of stipends and scholarship amounts in general. While excel sheets are still great, everything is so manual, allowing a big room for error and it can be time-consuming. Thanks to TechnologyOne, all my records are accurately systemised. It is also quite centralised, allowing me to find everything about a BSJ Scholar in a few clicks! Budgeting and forecasting are also being made easy and fun to track. Thanks to Kelly and the entire TechnologyOne team, BSJ’s life has been made a whole lot easier.”

Located in Australia, TechnologyOne is a successful tech company with a heart. Their Foundation is committed to help 500,000 children out of poverty.

Maryanne began making masks when COVID-19 started to spread around Australia and generously used this initiative to fundraise for St Jude’s. Through her fundraising efforts, she raised $4,000, donating the proceeds towards ‘Feed a class for a year’ and ‘Support student welfare for a year.’

Maryanne was also part of the Health Check Team (HCT) in early February this year and returned to Australia just before countries started closing their borders. The HCT is a group of international medical specialists who volunteered for two weeks at the beginning of this year to conduct annual health checks for St Jude’s students.

“I started making masks for my family and friends and also put out the offer to everyone that was in the HCT. This kept me busy posting them out to all corners of Australia. As things got more serious in Australia, the requests from friends to buy them from me built. I didn’t feel comfortable profiting from my friends so I decided I would sell them with the profits going to The School of St Jude.”

Through a family member, Maryanne’s masks have been sold to staff and families in the Australian Parliament with members wearing them to Parliament House.

“I would like to thank Caroline Hall and Karenne Michaelides, who are both HCT Volunteers and sponsors of St Jude’s students’ academic scholarship. They have been a great help with support on the back end.”

To support Maryanne’s ‘St Jude’s Mask Charity’, email her at StJudeMaskCharity@gmail.com.