Darcy Bond, who the world unfortunately lost in August last year, played for the Phantoms for eight years.

The Phantoms have now created an annual award in his name, for the individual that best represents the purple and blacks, in his memory.

"The idea of the Darcy Bond Medal came out of the passion he showed for our code and sport in general," Phantoms development officer Ross Thomas said.

"Anyone that knew Darcy will attest that he was phenomenal at golf too.

"In Oztag, he assisted the club and I regularly - from refereeing to helping with administration, to playing and coaching representative sides, which included driving them to tournaments.

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"All those traits reflected the sort of character he was. Everyone that pulls on that Phantoms' jersey in the future will know how big of an impact he made on the club and the Kiama community."

At each year's state carnival, Thomas and his club will present the medal to the person that displays similar passion, enthusiasm and fun-loving mentality that Bond possessed.

Unfortunately, the wet conditions and a postponed tournament (for the second year running with COVID-19 impacting the 2019 carnival) prevented the club from having a big presentation for the inaugural medal - with only the 55 men's (who reached the final) and open mixed (who finished equal-fifth) attending the deferred carnival.

Thomas and the Bond family presented the medal to inaugural winner Alex Boles, who was the driving force behind the club's men's team in 2021, at a special ceremony in Kiama last month.

"I'm blown away, to be honest - it's left me a little speechless," Boles said during the presentation.

"It's really special to receive the first-ever Darcy Bond Medal because he meant so much to both me and this great club."

The Bond family says Darcy, who in the Australian men's 20s side at the time of his passing, would feel extremely honoured.

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"The Phantoms club meant everything to Darcy - he just loved Oztag," brother Connor Bond said.

"He wouldn't play for anyone else except the Phantoms.

"He was a big part of getting the under 20s Kiama side to State Cup and due to his commitment, that side went from barely scoring a try to being in the running to win it each and every year."

Connor's mother Carrie echoed his thoughts.

"When Ross came to us with this idea, the whole family was blown away and extremely happy," she said.

"Darcy definitely deserves this honour, as he was always so proud to pull on that Phantoms jersey.

"We couldn't think of a better person than Alex to receive the first-ever medal."

Darcy was commemorated by a number of Phantoms' sides. His niece Lily named her Phantoms side 'Darcy's Angels', and the open mixed side called themselves the 'D-Boners' - with the latter having 'Forever our MVP' written across their jerseys.

Darcy's sister Whitney Schadel and her husband James have also developed a mental health organisation called The Elephant Crew, which gives people struggling an avenue to reach out and talk to someone locally on the South Coast.

"We established ourselves in September because mental health issues are prevalent in our family," James Schadel said.

"I myself have done a stint in a Richmond mental health facility for a month - I was suicidal.

"Not long after I came out, we lost Darcy, which sort of made us more aware of the number of youth suicides that were happening in our local area.

"Avenues we looked down, seeking help, just ended up in a dead-end - there was nothing available to help kids under 18, it's even hard to find help for adults.

"We wanted to make sure Darcy's death wasn't in vain, so we established our organisation.

"If we can save a few lives along the way, we've done our job."

Over the past nine months, the family have tried to keep the non-for-profit organisation low key but it's gaining traction every week now, with the community's support.

Up until the presentation of the Darcy Bond Medal, the organisation had declined offers to join discussion panels or mental health events.

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Since then, they have committed to being on a panel at the Kiama Pavillon's youth convention on Saturday, July 10, as a way to help raise awareness.

"We believe it's now time to take our organisation to the community and give back to people the best we can," Whitney Schadel said.

"We also want to bridge the payment gap people have to outlay to see a psychologist because sometimes it's financially so difficult to just get in the room with someone.

"It's a really flawed system and we are unfortunately losing our teens because of it - something needs to happen."

Despite two offers from the government to provide funding, the Elephant Crew wants to stand alone and make their own decisions.

"We have values, we have goals, which are not just talk - it's about turning that talk into action, like paying the gap for people who can't afford to see a health professional - which in itself can sometimes take months," James Schadel, whose organisation is currently running a Steps 4 Stigma fundraiser until the end of June, said.

"We're challenging the government, especially with the $2.3billion allocated to mental health in this year's budget, with actions, so hopefully they'll change their stance on these gap fees and differing prices on certain medications.

"We believe all Australians should have the same access to treatment and medications - it shouldn't be a financial burden on families.

"It's the small things that go a long way.

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"We have the 3-5-10 rule, that after someone reaches out to us, on the third day, we engage back with them.

"Five days after that, we make contact with them again, and again 10 days following - which is something that unfortunately doesn't happen in the community at the moment.

"In my eyes, there's no point bringing something like a Headspace to Kiama unless you bring psychologists and psychiatrists with them.

"We want to normalise mental health and make suicide not a taboo subject anymore."

The organisation has also recently started its own line of merchandise, with all proceeds going to a Darcy Bond memorial trust fund, which The Elephant Crew, who recently took part in a resilience walk with Australian of the Year Grace Tame, hopes will fund a mental health facility for Kiama.

Numbers to call if you or anyone you know needs help are:

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