How a tiramisu cake made to welcome back our 2024 Olympian and Paralympians found its way to an animal refuge and was the highlight of a morning tea to celebrate the birth of fifteen pups is a story to touch your heart.
It starts with former Olympian Russell Sherwell who owns the “Cheesecake” shop at Maroochydore deciding to bake a special cake for the gathering at the Maroochydore Surf Lifesaving Club to welcome back the athletes from Paris. The ‘welcome home’ gatherings welcome party started in 1984 when the Sunshine Coast was the first region in Australia to honour its athletes; water polo player Russell was one of five Los Angeles Olympians greeted at that time.
As it was the 40th anniversary of the welcome, Russell wanted to do something special, hence the cake.
The function, organised by the Sunshine Coast Region 2032 Legacy Taskforce, attracted more than 100 athletes and friends and perhaps it was the crowded room and the excitement of the festivities but the tiramasu treat was left untouched and it quickly needed a new home!
Legacy Taskforce committee member Alison Barry-Jones read on Facebook the next morning a sad story about a pregnant dog and how the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge Service [SCARS] had taken it in.
“I knew where it would be appreciated,” she told Noosa Today.
This is the SCARS story:
We don’t often share our heart break… life in rescue is hard… sometimes and some days are harder than others…
We’re not sure what circumstance makes you abandon a pregnant Mumma dog… but we are so grateful that the Sunshine Coast Council found her and brought her to us.
We’re so sorry we couldn’t save you Mumma and two of your pups… but we are going to fight so hard for your other 10 babies.
We hope you felt the care and love you deserved in the last few days when we had you in our care at SCARS with your belly full of babies … you have left a hole in all of our hearts. We are so sorry we didn’t get you sooner so we could have given you a fighting chance to have the ‘rest of your life’…
To our team at SCARS, thank you for your dedication to animals in need.. we wrap our arms around all of you who have been particularly impacted by this tragic situation.
To our SCARS family and community – please be gentle with us for a bit .. we are hurting. We will bounce back and will continue to care .. we just need a minute to grieve.
Thank you. Penny, Patron SCARS. RIP brave Mumma and pups.
Alison drove to the Rescue centre that morning just as the volunteers were having morning tea. They all appreciated Russell’s surprise tiramisu cake. It was the silver lining to their sad week.
The SCARS Facebook to the original story is: www.facebook.com/groups/SunshineCoastAnimalRefuge
[Ian Jobling and Alison Barry-Jones are members of the Sunshine Coast Region 2032 Legacy Taskforce]
