The Building Futures Program celebrated the future stars of sport at its inaugural dinner by donating $11,500 of prize money to the top 10 applicants.
With an initial planned prize pool of $8,000 the addition of $500 of funding for the 4th to 10th place getters came as a surprise to all attendees.
UKL’s Terry Seirlis, founder of the program said, the quality of the applicants had blown him out of the water, and he thought that they all deserved to win a prize.
“I was stunned by the talent of the top 10 and decided on the night that each one of them should get rewarded for their abilities,” Mr Seirlis said.
“Warwick has a huge future in sport with these athletes and it is a privilege to be a part of that.
“This town is like a second home, and I wanted to give back to the community here. After watching the Olympics, I was inspired and decided that supporting the future sports stars of tomorrow was how I would do it.
“I am just glad that Aleva Estate has given me the opportunity to support these young athletes and hopefully one day we will see a few of them on our TV screens,” he said.
Lesleigh Vincent received the first-place prize of $5,000 for her outstanding ability and leadership in polocrosse. Lesleigh said that she was thrilled to win and had big plans for her share of the prize money.
“I will be donating half of the money to Scots PGC College, and I will be donating the other half to my local Warwick and Cunningham polocrosse clubs,” Ms Vincent said.
As an outstanding cricketer and hockey player Samuel Bourke took home the second-place prize of $2,000. Samuel said the money would go a long way in getting him more training and support in the sports he loves.
“One day I want to play for Australia so this money will help me get new equipment and to attend the elite training camps held in Brisbane,” Mr Bourke said.
The third-place prize of $1,000 went to Lilly Jones, a sporting all-rounder who has made great achievements in netball, swimming and shooting.
Lilly said she has already signed up for a swimming clinic in Brisbane that she would otherwise not have been able to attend.
“The prize money will help me to hone my skills and allow me to upgrade my old equipment,” Ms Jones said.
$500 was also given to the other seven applicants who narrowly missed out making it into the top 3.
In no particular order these were Amira Duffy, Alivia Hallman, Mark Hallman, Lochlann Hogan, Mikayla O’Neill, Ashley Petersen and Samuel Wainwright.
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