Fatima Halloum
Werribee Centrals Football and Netball club have raised $2500 to support the Blue Ribbon Foundation, honouring officers who lost their lives in the line of service.
The club presented a cheque to police assistant commissioner Michael Grainger on Thursday, June 30, with funds raised through a Sportsman lunch, raffle and auction in May.
Club spokesperson Alan Stewart said the Werribee Centrals philosophy has “always been about helping other groups”.
“Because we’re one of the oldest clubs in Werribee, we’ve probably had a luxury of being able to do that and raise money that other clubs don’t have ability to…because they’re still growing,” he said.
“When we started the annual Sportsman day we said, ‘what can we do to give back?’ and Blue Ribbon came up because of Tim, and Richard and family, and we’ve had a lot of police play here over the years.”
Tim, the son of Werribee Centrals vice chairman Richard Lewczuk, was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.
Ass Comm Grainger said he was “really, really pleased” with the money raised and “very keen” to get members of the community involved in more fundraising efforts to honour officers.
“With that cheque we’ll put that towards supporting local hospital in some way, shape, or form, to develop a living memorial to police who’ve died in the line of duty,” he said.
“We are very excited to be the beneficiary of the great work Werribee Centrals has done in terms of fundraising and ongoing support for the Blue Ribbon Foundation.”
