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When Legacy, the charity that assists veterans and their families affected by war, was planning its 2023 centenary celebrations, it wanted to stage an event more meaningful than a black-tie gala dinner.
After years of planning, that event will start on Sunday, April 23, in the corner of a field in Pozieres, France, when the first torch in the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay will be lit.
Liliana Sanelli, who is co-ordinating the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay, displays the torch at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. Credit: Eddie Jim
It’s the site of a World War I battlefield where, in 1916, casualties totalled 23,000 men after the Australians spent 42 days making 19 attacks against German positions.
The torch will arrive in on our shores at Albany in Western Australia in May.
The torch relay was created and co-ordinated by event manager Liliana Sanelli during lockdown. She was tasked by Legacy with raising an initial $500,000 to get the project off the ground and raised $1.2 million.
“The defence community is very connected, it’s their own community and it serves them very, very well,” Sanelli said.
The Commonwealth War Cemetery in Pozieres, France.Credit: Jason South
“It’s when they leave that community and they’ve stopped serving. They have to find themselves again. Getting that connection and finding similar people and having a charity like Legacy connecting them to other families, they feel comfortable, like they belong again.”
Sponsors have so far helped the initiative raise about $6 million of a planned $10 million.
Some 1300 torchbearers are confirmed for the event after 2500 people applied. All are either veterans or connected to veterans. Governor-General David Hurley has expressed an interest, as has Anthony Field, the blue Wiggle.
At each relay event, army, navy and air force members will be present as the torch runs through the community before finishing at a reception at the local Legacy club.
The relay will visit all 45 Legacy clubs before finishing in Melbourne at the Shrine in October.Credit: Eddie Jim
Sanelli, the chief executive of Melbourne’s Perfect Events, says our connections to veterans and their families are often unacknowledged.
At speaking events, she asks who in the room has relatives of friend connected to the military and the vast majority put up their hands.
“I always say, ‘Look around, you’ve all got a common connection, but no one speaks about it. Everyone knows someone who has served and we wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for the protection of the [Australian Defence Force]’,” Sanelli said.
“I may have not served and my background is Italian. So I don’t have a direct relative that served but for me, I’m helping raise funds for the next generation to support these people.”
Sanelli is so committed to the project that she has had her nails painted with Australian, British and French flags, along with the Legacy torch logo.
Legacy was founded in Melbourne in 1923 in the aftermath of the World War I in response to “the Promise” – a battlefield incident in which a soldier in the trenches told a dying comrade he would look after his wife and children.
This year the charity commemorates 100 years of service to the families of Australian Defence Force members who have given their life or health in service.
“Torch relay is a great way of modernising Legacy,” Sanelli said.
The money will allow clubs to support former service men and women and their families with basic financial support, health support, welfare support and education.
“They need to get reintegrated into working, helping them with life skills,” Sanelli said.
“It’s not just the 99-year-old widow any more. It’s this new breed of families. They’ve got more than 40,000 beneficiaries. They take care of families around Australia and less than 1 per cent is government funding.”
The torch will weave its way through every Australian state and territory before it finishes in Melbourne in October, ahead of Remembrance Day.
For information on the stops, go to https://legacytorchrelay.com.au/relay-route/
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