Dancing For Destiny Four Women Dance To Change The Future Of Domestic Violence

When Coral Sea Marina CEO, Kate Purdie, was first approached to donate a prize for the Women’s Legal Service Queensland (WLSQ) ‘Jet Raffle’ back in 2021, she sat down to watch a video about the organisation’s work and cried.
“While I’ve been fortunate enough to never experience domestic or family violence myself, I could relate to the woman in the video,” she said. “I know what it is like to be in a situation where you have no control over what is happening to you and your family; to feel utterly terrified; to put on a brave face and pretend everything is okay when nothing is; to lose everything you have worked so hard for, including your family, and have to start all over again.”
Fast-forward to 2024 and accepting an invitation to become one of WLSQ’s flagship fundraising ‘Dancing CEOs’ was an easy decision to make because “If, by doing this, I can help even just one mum from ever feeling the way I did, I will. I hope that through ‘Dancing CEOs’, together we can make an even bigger difference than that.”
The catalyst for both the invitation to dance and that fateful initial donation request was Katelyn Aslett-Collins, a former ‘Dancing CEO’. “It had become my dream to somehow bring ‘Dancing CEOs’ from Brisbane to the Whitsundays and ultimately to create a local team, since what WLSQ provides is a statewide service and the need in our community is as great here as it is anywhere else,” she explained.
Whitsunday Transit’s Candice Crossley was the first piece of the puzzle in the formation of that inaugural Whitsundays team, having attended a function at which Ms Aslett-Collins was a guest speaker.
“As soon as I heard Katelyn speak, I realised that here was a woman who could help me fulfil a desire to ‘give back’ – particularly to women and children, with whom as a former school teacher, and part of a company which transports 2,000 children to school each day, I have a deep affinity – made even more poignant by knowing that of all the women experiencing domestic violence, 75 per cent have children in their care,” she said.
Tasked with finding the rest of her team, Ms Crossley turned to her friendship group, selecting not just Ms Purdie, but also SeaLink Whitsundays Business Development Manager, Red Cat Adventures co-founder and Chair of Tourism Whitsundays, Julie Telford, for whom the concept of women helping women struck a particular chord.
“I share WLSQ’s core values of care, respect, inclusivity, accountability and collaboration, and I want us to create a safer future for women and children, where everyone can live free from violence and discrimination and where a woman can tell her story without judgement or fear,” she said.
Completing the quartet, Whitsunday Family Dental co-owner, Dr Alice Harriott, was honoured to join saying: “I am a mother of four daughters, and I pray they may never need such a service, so I am dancing to raise awareness and funds, so that one day, no-one else has to,” Dr Harriott said.
These Whitsunday Women have come together to dance all the way to Brisbane City Hall this May in their quest to break the cycle of domestic violence in our communities. Despite the seriousness of their fundraising campaign, the five women behind ‘Team Whitsundays’ are determined to carry a spirit of optimism and hope throughout this journey. Equipped with their dancing shoes, strong moral compass and steadfast companionship, the world awaits to see what ‘Team Whitsundays’ has to offer.

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