At the recent Radio Lollipop Mater and Logan Volunteer Meeting, Radio Lollipop Adopt-a-Cop Nathan volunteered to come in and upskill our volunteers by teaching them a couple of different balloon sculpting animals.

The first was the three twist dog which actually can be three different animals, a normal dog, a sausage dog and a giraffe. He then taught the volunteers to make a fancy sword and also the sword holder. Our very talented volunteers mastered these animals and the sword in a very short space of time and Nathan then really proved his skills by making a butterfly, teddy bear, bird on a swing, flower and lots of other great items. Check out the photo with our volunteers and their fantastic balloons.

Radio Lollipop Queensland is keen to upskill our volunteers to enable them to teach the children new skills. At the meeting, recently recruited volunteer Scott Bradley demonstrated his skills in juggling and will be teaching the volunteers how to juggle at the next volunteers meeting later this year, after we have purchased our own Radio Lollipop branded juggling balls. Scott has also agreed to teach the volunteers some magic card tricks using our very own Radio Lollipop playing cards.

No doubt the children (and volunteers) are going to have heaps of fun up on the wards learning new skills that they can take back home or to school and show off to their friends the great things they learnt whilst in hospital. Our sincere thanks to Nathan and Scott for there continued support and sharing their skills.

With the NRL competition hotting up and the State of Origin in full swing it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a visit from our local NRL team the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans.

The players who were lucky enough to visit the Gold Coast Hospital were Gavin Cooper, Michael Hodgson and James Stosic. The guys were truly amazing and adapted very well to their new environment by walking in the door and heading straight to the painting tables were Michael put everyone to shame by painting the world’s best elephant.

They interacted extremely well with the kids who absolutely loved meeting their heroes. The boys even managed a fantastic on-air interview and some recordings in between painting flags and jerseys and signing autographs. We also arranged a mass “That’s Gold” photo which we have submitted to the Ch 9 Footy Show for their segment.

A big thank you must go to Gavin, Michael, James and Amber from the Gold Coast Titans for taking time out of their very busy schedules to come and visit us. Thanks also to all the volunteers involved for making the Titans visit a real success.

The Australia Football League’s Brisbane Lions team mascot Bernie ‘Gabba’ Vegas recently took time out of his busy on-season schedule to visit Radio Lollipop and the children at the Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

Bernie was a huge hit with the volunteers, children and their family and friends. He spent almost two hours visiting each child at their bedside, having his photo taken with them and presenting a special AFL Brisbane Lions gift to each child. One child was heard telling his parents that it was fun being sick in hospital especially when you get to meet Bernie “Gabba” Vegas.

The volunteers helped the children make Lions which they decorated using the Brisbane Lions team colours of blue, maroon and gold. Bernie ‘Gabba’ Vegas was very impressed by the craft activity and the great work that Radio Lollipop does in providing care, comfort, play and entertainment to sick children in hospital. Although the Brisbane Lions are not in the top 8 teams yet…the support from the children, their family and friends was enormous. Radio Lollipop would like to thank Bernie and his friend Sam for coming in to visit the children and making a difference to the stay of a sick child in hospital.

Bernie ‘Gabba’ Vegas is pictured here with the Radio Lollipop Wacky Wednesday volunteers Sarah Williams (left) and Alicia Foreman (right).