On August 29th, we headed along to the yearly trivia night run by Team Jack, in support of the Royal Children's Hospital. Donna and Blair aren't just friends of ours - they're two of our best friends, and we're lucky enough to be godparents to their three beautiful kids. So when I say Team Jack is close to home for us, I mean it literally. Every year, the Drysdale Bowls Club fills up with raffle prizes, trivia sheets, and a room full of people who've turned up for one reason: to support Jack, and the Royal Children's Hospital ward that's been part of his family's life for fourteen years. To add to the fun, each year has a different dress-up theme - this year's was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Jack was born with Craniosynostosis and Crouzon syndrome - which also brought hydrocephalus and a Chiari malformation - and lives with epilepsy. He had a tracheostomy from eighteen months old for ten years because of two types of sleep apnea, and wore a neck brace around the clock from age three to ten, due to an unstable neck - so things like climbing, jumping on the trampoline, and rough play with friends had to be limited to keep him safe. He was born ten days overdue and needed his first operation when he was just two days old, spending his first four weeks at the Royal Children's Hospital very unwell, with a lot of uncertainty. Those early months were a blur of surgery and recovery, with Donna and Blair splitting their time between Geelong and Melbourne to be there for Jack and for his big sisters at home.

Jack is fourteen now. His tracheostomy came out two years ago, and for the first time he was able to swim and put his head under water - something most of us take for granted.

He's doing well these days, but he's approaching the next stage of surgeries - Jack will have facial surgery around age seventeen, once he's finished growing. He's already had a bit of internal work done, and this year or early next year he'll start braces and orthodontic jaw expansion to help get him ready. Outside of hospital visits, though, he's exactly like any other fourteen-year-old - fun-loving, cheeky, and always up for a go. He's obsessed with cars, loves Lego, plays golf and basketball, and barracks for the Hawks.

From food drives to trivia night

Over its nine years, Team Jack has raised close to $200,000 all up - including the trivia nights and raffles, plus years of food, toy and book drives before that. This year's trivia night alone has raised roughly $34,000 so far, with a raffle still open, so the final total isn't locked in yet.

For the past nine years, that money has gone toward sponsoring rooms at Ronald McDonald House - starting with just one room and growing over time into four rooms, plus two beds on the Sugar Glider Ward at the Royal Children's Hospital, so families like Jack's have somewhere to stay close by during treatment.

A family we love

Team Jack is run by Jack's family - mum Donna, dad Blair, and sisters Paris and Maddie - alongside a committee of close friends, the Copperwaite family, and the wider Drysdale community that's grown up around them over the years, with a lot of support from the Drysdale Bowls Club itself. People often join the committee after coming along to a trivia night and getting swept up in it. We've watched this fundraiser grow for years now, not just as supporters but as family. One of Donna's favourite parts of it all is seeing how much the wider community has embraced Team Jack over the years - the Copperwaite family especially, and the bowls club, who've even filmed their own tribute video of the trivia night table setup, which Donna shared on the Team Jack Facebook page.

How to get involved

There's still time to help. The Team Jack Major Raffle is open now - tickets are $5 each, with prizes including a $1,500 Drysdale Mowers voucher, a 55" Hisense Smart TV and a Samsung A26 5G phone. It's drawn Thursday 24th September 2026 at 8pm, with proceeds going directly to the Royal Children's Hospital and Ronald McDonald House Parkville. You can grab a ticket at rafflelink.com/team-jack/team-jack-major-raffle, or scan the QR code from the flyer below, and follow along with everything Team Jack do on the Team Jack Facebook page.

A dedicated Team Jack website is in the works, but in the meantime, if you'd like to donate directly, just reach out through the Team Jack Facebook page for bank details. Team Jack is a non-profit rather than a registered charity, so donations aren't tax-deductible, but every dollar still goes straight toward supporting families like Jack's.

If you've never been to a Team Jack trivia night, put it in the diary for next year - it's one of the best nights on the Bellarine calendar, not only is it full of fun and lots of laughs, but it's also for one of the best reasons. And if you'd like to help before then, grabbing a raffle ticket would mean the world to a family we love dearly.