the fork

I'm sorry for my late involvement in this , but is it too late to suggest that I will frame it free of charge - it is afterall part of my business as a picture framer / gallery owner that I regularly frame sporting memorabilia .

If the jumper is left at either my Malvern or Fountain Gate stores , I can have it framed , with a plaque denoting the relevant information included , within a week .

Please advise ASAP if I can be of help .

Thanks Joeboy, very generous, I'll get back to you. Cheers.

Honestly, I am really happy with my contribution and want to share this experience with you mob.

Lets nominate someone most deserving, jaded is a good option.

It's great to see these donations rolling in. Mt Theo have been swept up in the excitement, I reckon we’ve got a few new members on the way!

Keep it coming in, it’s not too late to get involved, excess monies could even go towards ensuring the proper representatives from Yuendumu and Mt Theo are able to attend the jumper presentation.

Imagine how proud Liam is going to be to have some family attend such an event!

C’mon Dees!

mttheo.org

I have an exciting update on the preliminary plans for the presentation of Liam’s jumper, which the generous posters of both Demonland and Demonology have helped secure for the people of Yuendumu.

Before I go on I just want to thank you all for this experience, in particular I want to thank sleeve, for his efforts, long suffering for making initial contact with the club, RobbieO, deesrock and norwood demon for the messages and support. But really all of you have made this happen, this is ours.

After having a great chat with the club yesterday, who it must be said, is both moved an impressed by the nature and spirit of this fundraising effort, initial details of the event have been organised.

The jumper presentation will occur at an upcoming Mfc, Women of Melbourne function; The Long Journey. Which will be held at the Long Room at the MCG. This evening will be a celebration of the fantastic indigenous players of the Melbourne Football Club and a mightily appropriate occasion for the presentation to occur.

It is suggested that the presentation will be a major event of the evening and the club is really hoping that Demonlanders and Demonologists attend the evening to witness a part of MFC / Yuendumu history that we were a part of creating. I just think it’d be great to have a heap of us there to celebrate our achievement with Liam and the other indigenous players all of whom will be present along with Big Jim.

___________________

The Long Journey

For over a century, indigenous athletes have been making their mark on the game of Australian Football. Famous for their flair, speed and miraculous skills, they have captured the hearts and imaginations of football fans. Join women of Melbourne to explore the journeys of these young men, from their homes in remote Australia, to the home of football, Melbourne and the hallowed turf of the MCG.

Date: Thursday 16 July


Venue: Long Room, MCG


Time: 6:00 pm

Dress: Smart Casual

Price: $90 Inc. GST Price includes cocktail food, beer, wine and soft drink.

$10 of every ticket sold will go toward an exciting indigenous partnership that will be launched at this event.

To reserve your tickets, please contact Amanda Brearley at the Club - [email protected] or (03) 9652 1111.

______________________

Details of the exact nature of the presentation are yet to be finalised. Mt Theo, Yuendumu, the club and Demonland and Demonology will all be involved.

The club has requested that one member of Demonland and one member of Demonology will be required to be involved in the formal presentation of the jumper. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to put a good foot forward.

What I am going to ask everyone to do is nominate who they think is suitable for this role. Whilst I personally hope to attend, though this is unlikely, I would like to give two lucky posters the opportunity to be a part of history. I feel my involvement thus far has been special enough, the thanks and support I have received has been fantastic and I will now die a happy soul. I want to share the excitement and throw it open for the members of both boards to decide who our representatives should be.

Whilst I’ve got your attention I’ll throw my two bobs worth in. I think it would be good to have a male and a female, someone young and not so young, to show the diversity amongst our supporters. I’d love to have one of the founding members of the boards be a representative, one of the wise old buggers. And I reckon there’s room for one of the two representatives to have a lucky little tacker in a Dees Jumper up on stage with them also to have a memory that will last a lifetime.

I don’t know how else best to do this? Anyone got a better idea? As '84 has just suggested below it should obviously be people who have dontated.

PLEASE NOTE: The club has asked that I be the sole point of contact for this presentation. The club has been contacted by several individuals and would prefer, understandably, for them to have one point of contact, which at this stage is me.

Thanks again. I understand that some media is interested in this story which is great, this is a wonderful opportunity for the club. Lets support this great event!!!

Oh and you can call me Luke, this fork thing is weirding me out!

Great news. The Club are thrilled about was has happened. They feel that it would be better to actually present it to someone (Susie?) from the Mt. Theo organisation at a Melbourne game here in Melbourne at a Presidents lunch. They will get the jumper framed with a plaque.

So I don't think this can all be organised by next Saturday and something else is happening at the Pres lunch the following game Port Adelaide so it may have to be the Richmond game. The Club are also able to get some footballs up to the Yuendumu Football Club.

Questions are:1. because of the difficulty of getting someone to go up to the community do we all agree that it be presented to Mt Theo at the Presidents lunch.

2. What do we want on the plaque. I presume both Demonland and Demonology?

3. Can we get Jet Star /Qantas to donate a ticket for Susie to come down?

Has anyone any thoughts.

I will also let those on Demonology know what is going on.

Hi Gang,

Back in Australia and stoked to see all this money flying in to Mt Theo. Thanks to everyone for the messages of thanks and support but it must be said that this was a simple idea until you all got behind it. This kind of feels like a movement now, a rush of support with heart from us the supporters to liam, mt theo, the warlpiri mob and the club.

I apologize to people I haven't been able to get back to who have sent personal messages. I will respond asap. Speaking to a number of people today and will report back when things have been formalized. In the meantime keep the money and goodwill rolling. Can't answer all questions just yet.

Well done.

Can someone copy this onto 'ology for me?

Demonlanders, I'll say it one more time, this has been a fantastic experience. The union of the past couple of days has been something special and can't thank you enough for getting behind this idea. This is Melbourne, this is it's supporters getting behind the club, it's players and what they together stand for. It's also the beginning of a wonderful relationship with the Mt Theo program (which it must be said is revered throughout the Western Desert for the vital role they play with Warlpiri youth) and the wider Yuendumu community.

Now it's time for our generous donations to flood the Mt Theo coffers, lets purchase this, as Japaljarri has said, "sacred object" and present it to the Yuendumu community on behalf of the club and it's supporters.

Please follow the following easy instructions to donate your generous amounts.

The money pledged for the purchase of Liam Jurrah's debut guernsey will be donated to the Mt Theo program.

There are two ways you can make your donation.

You can do it online

or

You can visit their website and print a form which you can then post or fax.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR DONATION:

Go to the Mt Theo website: www.mttheo.org

Scroll down the page and on the right hand side you will see a blue box saying "Make a donation to our group"

This will take you to a donations page, scroll halway down the page and click on MAKE A ONE OFF DONATION

or

Just below that there is a link which you may click to print a form which you can fill out and post or fax.

When making a donation online there is a section for optional information. In this section please write "for Liam's guernsey". It would be best if you might include your name also, the idea is that a plaque will be made to honour all donors.

I was wondering if anyone will be at the Bentleigh Club tonight to watch the Dees v the Lions...

Curious if you will be there Fork or a delegate to start attaining some of the donations.

I would also love to make a contribution and would be happy to make my payment tonight if possible.

Go Dees and thank you Fork - this has been very inspiring

The whole exercise has been significant.

Sorry glory, overseas at the moment, in transit today, will be online tonight answering questions and posting payment info.

In transit Sunday/ Monday also but online in and out. Stay in touch, if certain members want to starting pooling their donations, please proceed.

Gotta go!

I'll be posting info of how to donate the generous amounts you have pledged when I get the info from Susie next week.

Again, this is a great moment for a great club, well done and keep it coming in, lets reduce that amount that Mt Theo themselves have to contribute if we can.

My better half and I in for $200.

I'm off for a beer and a swim, cheers...

Great work Fork.

I created a spreadsheet with all usernames and pledges and thus far it totals 1700 so with Mt Theo chipping in 1500 only a further 200 is needed.

PM me your email address and I'll send you the spreadsheet so you can name and shame those that don't pay!!!

legend...

It has been heart pounding stuff, couldn't post what has been going on here, as was worried our plan might be discovered.

Mt Theo had to go offline about 45 minutes ago and asked me to bid on their behalf.

We were worried that Dave was going to come in at the last minute with a higher bid and shut us out, so with 24 second to go I threw in an extra $100 just to make sure.

Mt Theo have pledged $1500, so far we have pledged just over $1500 and hopefully more will come in. $350 odd dollars of buyers premium to go on top.

What a fantastic team effort between us and Mt Theo.

This in from Susie two seconds ago:

"just tell them all how completely out of control happy we are! and they're ALL invited to come see us!!"

Dees supporters you've done yourselves proud!

Next we need to discuss how best for us to get the money to Mt Theo, I will discuss it with Susie and Alex and will let everyone know.

Great effort everyone, this is a moment to savour and anyone that ever suggests that our supporter base has no ticker can shove it!!!!!!

Go you Demons!!!!

Thanks for the incredible support from you all.

Mt Theo have the current bid.

worried about someone coming over the top...

?

Don't worry about the $ fork, between us all, we'll raise whatever is needed.

I'm very confident of that.

Thanks for the incredible support from you all.

Mt Theo have the current bid.

fork buy the jumper regardless of price. We'll raise the money in a canter, I've got more if we need it

Good on you Roost, the response has been great and I would like to think that the Mt Theo gang has enough, they are in charge of the bidding now and are aware of the amount pledged so far.

Cheers for your and everyone elses support.

Hi people. Susie Low the CEO of the Mt Theo Program has asked that I post the following remarks:

"You guys rock! Susie here, CEO of the Mt Theo Program, and very proud 'grandmother' for Liam. Needed to let you know how overwhelmed we've been by your support in trying to get Liam's debut jumper home. Here, every day, it will inspire other young men and women to believe that absolutely anything is possible! We have known and loved Liam forever, but to see how you have embraced him in the Demons makes us so happy. You've got one of the best there, and sounds like you already know it!

Still some time to go on the auction, and I'm pretty confident, but no-matter the outcome, your extraordinary efforts and support will remain with us. Thank you!!!"

finger and toes all crossed!

cheers

Susie Low

Manager

Mt Theo Program

Great idea, good luck with it.

A couple of points -

Probably not the best idea to publish their upper limit on the forum - makes it easy for someone else to come over the top. I might remove that bit of the email - if you still want it there you can edit it back in

You might also want to be willing to stump up all the cash pledged, since it's not certain all pledges via the net will be delivered.

EDIT: Note that you can make tax-deductible donations to the Mt. Theo program, so that might be a good way to go about contributing.

Further info @ http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/mttheo

Thanks Rogue. In my original post I didn't include the figures but then thought it was best to be transperent. Thought it was a long shot that anyone bidding against us would read what we're trying to achieve and outbid us, but maybe I am just naive?

Stump the pledges?

Happy to finalize the finances early next week. Some have mentioned ways of doing this, let's discuss. I am travelling back to Aust Sunday/ Monday and may be offline.

Long suffering thanks, would love you to continue to liase with the club. Would be great to see a group of Demonlanders, especially founding members, up this way for a handover of sorts. Getting ahead of myself, let's just hope Mt Theo brings it home.

Just an update to all posters on Demonland and Demonology.

In the last 24 hours I have been in contact with Alex Cadden from the Mt Theo Program, Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation in Yuendumu. As some of you may have noticed they made an early bid on the jumper (which I only became aware of after our initial bid). I have waited to contact Alex and clarify how best to proceed before posting, so excuse me if this information has appeared a little after the fact.

I contacted Alex to let him know that there is a willing and passionate group of Melbourne supporters who would like to purchase and donate this jumper for the community. Through a few emails we have decided to combine forces in an effort to secure this piece of Melbourne Demons/Yuendumu Community history. This is hopefully the start of a fantastic link between Demons supporters and this proud football community.

Below are some of the emails I have received from Alex (published with his permission) for your information. Also some information regarding the Mt Theo program, which continues to do great work with Warlpiri youth.

Hopefully by joining forces with this great community organisation we can ensure this is a success. The Mt Theo program will now bid on our behalf, just so there is no confushion. Keep the pledges coming in, who knows how popular this item will turn out to be? This exercise is very inspiring indeed.

The Mt Theo Program

Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC)

The Mt Theo Program was started by Yuendumu Community in 1993 to address chronic petrol sniffing in Yuendumu. The program has since broadened in nature and scope to provide a comprehensive program of diversion, treatment, aftercare and youth leadership and development throughout the Warlpiri region. The program is predominantly funded by O.A.T.S.I.H.

Elders of the Yuendumu Community initiated the program in 1993, with additional support from local organisations. The program and community successfully fought petrol sniffing through a dual approach. The first step was the movement of those sniffing petrol to Mt Theo Outstation, some 160km from Yuendumu community. At Mt Theo Outstation, Yuendumu elders cared for the youth, as part of a cultural rehabilitation program. The second step was the introduction of a comprehensive 7-day Youth Diversionary Program in Yuendumu so that the youth would be engaged, interested and challenged by activities outside of school hours.

For more information please visit: www.mttheo.org

Good morning Luke!

That's a wonderfully generous gesture! We are really excited by the possibility of having his debut guernsey taking a prominent place for all the community to see, especially considering the role model he is to so many out here and the pride we have in him as such a success of the Jaru Pirrjirdi program.

I've been advised by our manager, Susie, that we can bid up to $x, but I agree we need to avoid stepping on each others' toes in this process. Could you let me know what is the UserID you are using to bid for the jumper? I saw that this morning the bid had jumped to $700, so is fast approaching the limit for either of us, and to win, pooling resources could be the only way to go forward.

Possibly the easiest way to sort this out would be for us to make the bid under directions from you as to how much you were willing to contribute. If we were to win the bid, you could then organise this contribution as a donation to our organisation. We could even add a little plaque thanking the people who contributed to return this to the community. Hopefully this would be as streamlined as is feasible, and allow this little bit of history to live on in Yuendumu.

I'm also open for other suggestions as you see fit, but as you realise we need to finalise our method fairly quickly today.

I hope you are enjoying your holiday and I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Alex

Alex Cadden

Executive Assistant

Mt Theo Program

Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation

Hello again Luke,

Thanks for your prompt reply. That will be great if you can communicate with the boards so they are aware of the collaboration. Speaking with our manager we were thinking that if we do manage to win the bid with your assistance, it would be a lovely gesture to find an appropriate time for the people involved in your generous contribution to hand the guernsey over in a more public, formal way. That type of thing can all be organised later though. For now, I shall try and win the bid!

Cheers,

Alex

-----------------

Long Suffering - No offence taken, happy for this proceed in the most appropriate manner. Good on you for contacting the club, just great to hear their interested in being involved. Inspiring stuff people.

Add another $20 from me if the auction is still going

We have until 8pm today, still plenty of time to bid or be outbid.

More news coming soon!

I'm in, money is tight though, so just the $20.

If we raise more than we need here, can we put the extra into some training gear?

Thanks Distance, every little bit is going to help here I imagine. Any access cash can go into training gear, maybe we can speak to the club about something appropriate. Keen to turn this Magpie town into Demonland!

Hows it going?

I will be in for $25.

That's roughly $800, amazing! I just knew the good people on here would support this idea.

We need to keep going though, please if you know anyone that would want to get involved contact them and pledge their support.

Sleeve is going to bring in the support of our fellow Demonologists who I am sure want to see this jumper end up on Liams home community.

Cheers.

Hi Fork,

Would you be willing to include Demonology in this fundraiser? I'm sure between both sites we can raise the necessary coin to do this.

Let me know in a PM Fork then I'll recreate your original message on Demology

Cheers

Hey Sleeve, I am sure that I am speaking on behalf of all Demonlandets when I say yes we'd love to have those at Demonology on board to help out. As Fuschia said there are a couple of keen bidders after this item and we will need to raise in access of $1000. I would have invited Demonologists as well but actually trying to coordinate this on my iPhone from Thailand (rather difficult)!

Cheers Sleeve. I need an indication from people quickly before I make another bid. My wife and I in for $150.

How are you going to collect the money?

Any idea of how much it will cost to frame it?

How are you going to send it to the community?

Great idea BTW, well done.

I would ask that people either:

Deposit the money directly into my bank account /or:

Send a cheque/money order to me in the post.

Someone could pick it up for me in Melbourne send it up and I could get it framed in Alice Springs, where I live. We'd get it done up with all the appropriate trimmings: photo, details on Liam and donors; Demonland!

Then with local media in tow we can drive it out and present it to the appropriate persons. I know plenty of people out there and will ensure it is somewhat of an event. Would be great to get someone from the club involved as well.

If anyone has any better ideas in any of the above would love to listen.

In for $100

Thanks people. I would love to think that everyone would see the real value in this. I know the community would take plenty of pride in having the jumper in their community. To know that it came from a passionate cluster of supporters will send a message that there are people everywhere who support Liam, his family and therefore the community. Of course the money is going to a great cause as well.

I have placed a bid and we're at $410. If you can't afford $20 that's fine, let me know what you can afford, or if you can chip in some more like the champions above, well that's great as well.

Cheers.

It has struck me that if there is one place in the world where Liam's debut guernsey belongs, it's in his home community of Yuendumu where it will stand forever as testament to the effort and energy of Liam and the many people that have contibuted to his debut for the greatest football club in the world, the Melbourne Demons.

The idea is if we can get at least thirty of us put in $20 dollars each we can (hopefully) purchase Liam's guernsey, have it nicely framed up and dontae it to the community as a whole. The donation will be on behalf of Demonlanders. A nice news story for the club and a nice contribution and connection to the community.

Whose in?

Reply to this post letting me know, I'll bid on our behalf and hopefully this'll come off.

I know everyone on here is right behind Liam and is inspired by this young man's effort thus far and also by the outstanding effort the club has made in settling him into his new life down there. His selection and the clubs faith deserves to be acknowledged, so let's make a statement.

It's on $390 at the moment and there is only a day left so we have to move quick! C'mon Demonlanders!

Grimes was pick 14 If I remember correctly.....

I always get that wrong as well. Pick 14 for a player who wore 16, for a player who wears 16.

Been said many times but a good trade even at this early stage.

Very funny H. Deserves to be read far and wide to highlight what a dill Mathews is in the media.