The kit was kindly donated by the Rotary E-Club of Brindabella and Sanctuary Point Bendigo Bank.

Dream Cricket ambassador Rick McCarthy said the program had been running for six years.

“We held our first clinic on Bradman Oval in 2010 with 80 children and we now have about 250 to 300 every year,” he said.

The program has reached children living with a disability across Australia and overseas. 

“I cover 47 country towns in NSW, 16 in Western Australia, ten in Victoria, 12 in Queensland and I’ve just started in Adelaide. I have also been going to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal for the last six years holding clinics once a year in those countries.”

Mr McCarthy said it was possible to take the program overseas because of the support from Rotary.

“Being an international body, the Rotarians bring the children together, contact Dream Cricket then I go and present the program,” he said.

Each year Dream Cricket holds clinics for approximately 2000 primary school children and between 12,000 and 15,000 children have reaped the benefits of the program since it began in 2010.

“They’re all children with a disability and each of the programs are developed so we adjust to their ability and we also challenge them in different ways to extend them,” Mr McCarthy said.

“The enjoyment for the children is what keeps me going, every Dream Cricket clinic I do there is always one special instance that remains with you.

“The children get a great deal of fun out of it, even children in wheelchairs who can only roll the ball down their legs to touch the Velcro and they may only lift the corner of their mouth or widen their eyes, but that’s their smile and that’s what they get out of it.”

The Rotary E-Club of Brindabella has been involved with Dream Cricket for five years, working with the group in Bowral and now in Canberra.

“We thought maybe we should be doing something down here as well,” president of the Rotary E-Club of Brindabella Margaret Britton said.

“We are trying to get a program up and running that is ongoing. We’ve appointed two coordinators to be trained doing what Rick does to ensure the kits are being used the right way and the kids are getting the most out of it.”

Bendigo Bank branch manager Keith Robinson said the donation fitted the banks ethos.

“We love looking after the kids in the area,” he said.

“We saw it as something that will help the youth of the area, it’s a small token really from a bank’s point of view.”