Abdallah family to host free family festival on i4Give Day
A new memorial day in honour of four children killed in the Oatlands car crash will include a free family festival for the first time this year.
NSW
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A memorial day in honour of four children killed in the Oatlands car crash will include a free family festival for the first time this year to encourage people to come together.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his predecessor Scott Morrison and Premier Dominic Perrottet are all expected to attend the event, along with a number of NRL and A-League players.
Siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, and Sienna, 8, Abdallah and their cousin, Veronique Sakr, 11, died when drunk driver Samuel Davidson, now 32, veered onto a footpath where they were walking on February 1, 2020.
Astonishingly, the two families took the brave step of forgiving Davidson and, in that same spirit of compassion, launched i4Give Day, a memorial day held annually on the anniversary of the crash that encourages people to forgive or ask for forgiveness.
Covid was an obstacle to previous i4Give Day events, but this year all families are invited to join in at Parramatta’s Prince Alfred Park from 11am to 10pm on Saturday February 4.
The festival will include free family fun activities including amusement rides, a petting zoo and a movie night.
NRL players from the Bulldogs and the Eels and also A-League players from the Western Sydney Wanderers will also be there.
Leila Abdallah, the mother of the three siblings who died, said she and her husband Danny had found forgiving had given them strength to go on.
She also said she hoped i4Give Day would encourage people to start forgiving at a young age.
“It’s through forgiveness that Danny and I are able to wake up every day and count our blessings and be grateful for what we have around us,” Mrs Abdallah said.
“The festival is a way of saying thank you to the community for standing by us.”
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