How philanthropy can make you healthy and happy.

Abstract

When I came to Australia 40 years ago from the European headquarters of Time Magazine I fell in love with this wide brown land. And despite working my tail off as being a top executive, it did not’ matter with such friendly and caring people. I suffered from repeated bronchitis in Amsterdam (originally from USA) for the 10 years I lived there because I was not used to the dampness. So I was so excited about coming to a sunny and warm part of the universe. I have always loved to help needy causes, and as a new citizen, I embraced charity work. Yes, give with gratitude to my new country! And I threw my heart and soul into so many multifarious needy causes. Opera artists, Uni students, Olympics, Legacy, Cochlear Implant for Deaf Children; the list is long. My focus was to raise as much money as possible. My philosophy was and still is, why do people wait until they die and leave their donations to their favourite charities? Why not give whilst you are living, and you can smile knowing you have helped someone in an area, such as The Lung Foundation, or other passionate causes. Guess what? It makes you feel so good. I know it has helped me deal with my lung disease, Bronchiectasis. Yes, I was diagnosed in 2018 after years of chronic pneumonia. I started playing golf at 40 because I love sport. And many of the gentlemen I was dealing with in business went out, had lunch, played golf and did business deals! I was a weekend warrior, and became hooked. And guess what? As a female, I started doing business deals because I could play pretty good golf! Fast forward to 2023, and there are 26 girls who have been scholars and loving their golf. I joined the nascent Australian Golf Foundation in 2020, and presented to the board that if I went out and raised the money every year, I wanted to launch this across the country. Especially in rural and regional communities to young girls who could never even dream of playing golf. First nation, farming communities etc. The game has shrunk dramatically for women over the past 25 years. Today, we have nearly 2000 girls in the past 3 years who have had a scholarship. The fundraising is close to a million dollars, and I am so busy and having so much fun seeing these girls become friends for life with girls they never would have met before. And for the past 2 years, 8 young girls from the scholarship have been chosen to caddy for the lady Pro's on TV at an annual tournament called the Athena. Golf is brilliant exercise for lung diseases. Bonnie Boezeman provides an annual donation to The Lung Foundation for a new Peer To Peer program for Bronchiectasis.