The Club Built on Leadership and Heart

At the peak of the Black Summer bushfire crisis in January 2020, Club Sapphire — in the Far South Coast town of Merimbula — acted as the major official evacuation centre for residents and tourists fleeing the fires.

At its peak, more than 1500 people were sheltering daily inside the Club, with one room even set up as a dedicated dementia ward to house nursing home residents. 

“It was just a magnificent example of what the community can do and what the club industry did, and I think we saw the club industry at its absolute best,” Club Sapphire CEO Damien Foley tells the ClubLIFE Podcast in a new episode released today.

“Every room in the club had people in it… one room in the Club became a dementia ward — one of the nursing homes in the area had to evacuate and 20 to 30 of their patients were delivered to the Club and we just had to find a way to deal with it… we had volunteers turn up who had some knowledge of nursing who just stepped in and helped make that happen.

“If we ever wanted to send a message to the community about what this industry does for the community, that was a great example of it.”

In a wide-ranging interview on the ClubLIFE Podcast, Damien also opens up about his late father overcoming adversity and how that’s helped to shape his own outlook on life.

“He defied the odds from the start, he was born very premature in the late 40s, born with Cerebral Palsy,” says Damien.

“They lived on a farm and his mum — my grandmother — was thrown in the cattle truck and driven to the hospital in Casino when she went into labour early, but didn’t quite make it, so he was born on the side of the road in a cattle truck.

“When they finally got to the hospital the doctors said go home and leave him, he won’t see the night out, but she refused to accept that and took him home with her and fed him with an eye dropper for six months and he survived… he ended up having five kids and seven grandkids.”

Damien also discusses his Board’s community ethos, the opportunities and challenges of heavily relying on tourist trade, the Club’s diversification strategy, lessons learnt from unsuccessful amalgamations and plenty more. 

Click on the link below to hear the full interview with Damien Foley in Episode 20 of the ClubLIFE Podcast, which is also available via ClubLIFE.com.au, Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.

If you have a suggestion on who might make an interesting guest for a future ClubLIFE Podcast episode, get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected].