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Each year the Newcastle Pinball Association hosts Newcastle Pinfest, Festival of the Silver Ball. It is a time for pinball lovers everywhere to come together for the weekend, celebrate their love of the games, and play a lot of pinball.

But Pinfest is not just for fun. The Newcastle Pinball Association donates the profits from each year’s event to a local charity. This year they chose Friends of Palliative Care Inc. as the recipient and invited the group to come along and play some pinball while picking up the cheque.

Chris Slevin, President of the Newcastle Pinball Association, said it was their best Pinfest yet, “This was not only our biggest number of machines, but I think the nicest and best lineup of machines so far in 11 Pinfests.”

“We are very happy to announce that the chosen charity, Friends of Palliative Care will receive $15,000 from us at the NPA and $2000 from out major sponsor AMD for a total of $17.000, by far our most successful year.”

Friends of Palliative Care Inc. is an organisation working in the lower Hunter area dedicated to promoting community awareness of palliative care services, helping people living with life-limiting illnesses, and providing much needed support to patients, families, and carers.

They provide loans of specialist equipment such as electric beds, bed sticks, hospital bed tables, hoist and slings, specialised pressure care mattresses, pressure cushions and many other items. They also provide some financial aid taking care of pharmacy bills and other expenses, and help finance professional development and education for specialist palliative care staff.

Spokesperson Rhiannon Varley says Friends of Palliative Care is entirely funded by donations and so they are thrilled to receive such an unexpected gift. They sent three of their most pinball-keen volunteers to Pinfest on Sunday to accept the cheque.

“This money will go a long way towards supporting individuals at end of life and palliative care in the Hunter and we are very grateful for this donation,” says Rhiannon.

“We recently acquired some more of the adjustable hospital-style beds we loan out to clients. Now we’ll be looking to purchase some new pressurised mattresses to go with them.”

Main photo: Chris Slevin President of the Newcastle Pinball Association presents Belinda McQuillen from Friends of Palliative Care with their donation cheque, accompanied by Danielle Redding (left), Cathy Mitchell (right), and with Marco Rossignoli from NPA (far right).

Below photo: Michael Bowyer from AMD presents Danielle, Bel and Cathy from Friends of Palliative Care with their donation.

Photo: Danielle, Cathy and Bel enjoying Pinfest