2025 Mayoral Prayer Breakfast to aid Red Frogs Australia’s Toowoomba programs at May 13 fundraiser

Peer support programs run under the Red Frogs Australia banner across Toowoomba will benefit from funds raised at the 31st Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast, which will be held at Rumours International on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, from 6am.

Toowoomba Region Mayor Cr Geoff McDonald said the Red Frogs organisation had built a trusted reputation as the largest harm minimisation and early intervention service supporting young people across Australia, with similar programs also operating overseas.

“The Red Frogs volunteers have shown compassion and understanding in their mission to support young people’s wellbeing while having a positive influence on their lives through various education campaigns,” Mayor McDonald said.

“Apart from handing out their familiar namesake lollies, the Red Frogs offer positive peer role model information, pre-Schoolies seminars plus leadership and life training education to high school students, school leavers, university students and at skateboard clinics and competitions, youth music festivals and sporting events.

“Helping our young people make positive choices is an important lesson that needs emphasising among their peers and the wider community, especially in a world where excessive consumption is all too often seen as the norm.

“The Red Frogs’ vision statement neatly summarises what could be a much wider catchcry: ‘To reduce suffering and safeguard a generation of young people and empower them to make changes and positive life choices and become a voice of change within their culture’.”

Red Frogs Australia was founded in 1997 by Andy Gourley, a youth pastor at Brisbane’s Citipointe Church at the time, who saw the need for support services at the Gold Coast schoolies event in 1997. Mr Gourley was the guest speaker at the 2016 Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast.

Red Frogs Toowoomba coordinator Andre Henare said the group was pleased to be chosen as the beneficiary for this year’s Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast.

Mr Henare said the Toowoomba group had grown to include more than 100 volunteers who covered an area west from Ipswich that incorporated the Toowoomba Region and other western centres.

“Our primary focus is to ensure the wellbeing of young people through school education, boarding house and party support, in addition to aiding businesses via toolbox talks aimed at apprentice workers that includes random visits to deliver pancakes,” Mr Henare said.

“Our community engagement at universities offers weekly mental health support programs. Our volunteers also set up hydration stations and offer wellbeing support at music and sports events, including the Weetwood Handicap race day in Toowoomba, the recent CMC festival near Ipswich (where we supported 25,000 patrons handing out 7000 cups of water and 130kg of red frog lollies), plus the Warwick rodeo.

“We are branching into a Skatepark Shepherds program to create safe spaces for young people, along with work with various sporting groups, including the Toowoomba Mountaineers basketball teams.”

This year’s Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast guest speaker is Leading Australian economist and public policy specialist, Professor Ian Harper AO.

Professor Harper is a member of the Monetary Policy Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Chair of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council.

For five years until November 2023, Professor Harper was Dean & Director of Melbourne Business School and Co-Dean of the Faculty of Business & Economics at The University of Melbourne. Before this, he was a partner at Deloitte Access Economics for seven years.

From March 2014 to March 2015, Professor Harper chaired the Australian Government’s Competition Policy Review and, before that, served as inaugural Chairman of the Australian Fair Pay Commission from December 2005 to July 2009.

In addition to releasing academic and other publications, Professor Harper won the Australian Christian Book of the Year award for his 2011 book, Economics for Life. The book was updated and later published as, Confessions of a Meddlesome Economist. Both books cover how Professor Harper’s Christian faith has helped his professional career.

Tickets will be on sale from 9am on Monday, April 14, 2025. (via Council's website)

Prices are $27 for adult tickets and $17 for school-age children.

Tickets can be purchased at Council’s Little Street Customer Service Centre in Toowoomba from 8.30am to 5pm on weekdays or by calling 131 872. (from April 14)

All credit cards, except Diners Club and American Express, can be used.

Caption: Toowoomba Region Mayor Cr Geoff McDonald with Red Frogs Toowoomba coordinator Andre Henare (left) and Nathan Skinner (Red Frogs Toowoomba education programs, right). The Red Frogs will receive funds from the 2025 Toowoomba Mayoral Prayer Breakfast on May 13.