Give generously to help ease the pain

My heart almost broke the other day when the horrific news started filtering through about all those young Aussie adventurers killed in Switzerland.
I was in the middle of a lunchtime meeting at my club when one of my fellow directors arrived at about 4.30 and broke the news.
Poor buggers, I thought, young kids in the prime of life doing something as innocent as throwing themselves head first into a raging ice-cold mountain torrent powering through narrow rocky canyons, and that had to happen to them.
You just start to wonder where on earth a bloke can feel safe.
Of course, we shouldn’t hold anything against the Swiss. They’re a lovely bunch of people. On my own account, I’m pleased to number some of them as personal friends.
I’ve done many a deal with Swiss business people and a nicer, more discreet race you wouldn’t want to meet. Worth their weight in gold – many literally.
Sure they’ve copped a bit of flak in recent years from our Jewish friends about their bookkeeping during the last Big One back in the 40s, but you’ve got to remember they’ve always taken their neutral status very seriously.
As one of my mates in Geneva puts it: “How were we to know who’d win?”
No, we can’t go holding grudges against the Swiss people.
Back at the club – still reeling from the news from Switzerland – I was watching one of the younger female staff members go through one her more vigorous routines and I couldn’t get my mind off that canyon.
Morrie, I said to myself, you’ve got to do something to help. But what?
I looked down at the advert on my drink coaster and – bingo. It was staring me in the face all along.
I’d set up a special 0055 phone line to raise sufficient funds to ensure that all these risky physical activities that naturally appeal to the adventurous, carefree nature of your typical Aussie - adrenalin-rush activities such as canyoning, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, parasailing and the like - are always conducted with a sufficient number of professionally trained guides to ensure this tragedy never, ever, occurs again.
I immediately left the lunch and went outside to make a call on the phone in the Caprice.
It was a bit of a struggle finding the car in the dark, but the old Morrie’s got a sense of direction that’s almost canine.
The upshot is – after a few quick calls to a couple of mates of mine in the telecommunications game – I’ve now almost got the whole jigsaw in place for a special phone line to provide the funds we so urgently need.
My sister-in-law Mandy will be holding the phone, so to speak, once we go “on line” (that’s techo talk). She’s a good kid and does this sort of work all the time. Terrific oral skills.
Anyone who feels the same sense of loss that I do will be able to ring up and register their donation with Mandy.
But, like everything in this crazy old world, these things aren’t cheap to set up. And the old Morrie isn’t exactly flush with funds, not after the second divorce.
So, I’m asking you to dig deep and kick in a few lazy C-notes – a K or two if you can spare it – so this valuable lifesaving service can get up and running as soon as possible.
We need as much moolah as possible to give our Aussie adventurers the lifeline they need.
So dig deep and mail me a cheque today.
Make it out to Canyoning Accident Swiss Hotline.
Bugger it, to save your time and mine, just make it out to CASH.
I’ll be in touch.

Morrie.

Morrie Bezzle is chairman of the Roger Rogerson Foundation and executive director of
Russell Island Houseboats NL (formerly Russell Island Caravan Park Pty Ltd).