Frankston Dolphins will continue raise awareness, funds to fight Epidermolysis Bullosa

Frankston Dolphins will resume its fight against Epidermolysis Bullosa this Saturday, as the “good Dolphins” continue to do “good things” within the community. Here’s how the Dollies are doing it.

Frankston leaders in the Cure EB strip. Left to right: Ryley Stoddart, Trent Mynott, Will Fordham and Kai Owens.

The Frankston Dolphins will continue to fight the good fight this Saturday with its annual Butterfly Ball.

The Dolphins started raising awareness and funds for Epidermolysis Bullosa, a genetic skin blistering condition that affects over 500,000 children and adults around the world, back in 2019.

As the Dolphins prepare to tackle a bigger opponent than Werribee this Saturday, coach Danny Ryan said raising awareness for Cure EB is “the right thing to do” as “good Dolphins”.

“Cure EB is one of those terrible diseases that no one knows much about,” he said.

“Little kids that are missing the protein in their skin, they’re wrapped in rags, we feel for the parents that have to unwrap them each night, put them in the saline bath and watch their own kids cry themselves to sleep.

“It’s one of the things we talk about, the culture here, good people make good Dolphins, good Dolphins do good things.

“Raising awareness, we don’t know how much money we can make, but we have a go and have a crack. If the least we can do is raise awareness, that’s a good thing to do.

“That’s the thing that’s in our control, we’re not in control of winning games of footy, we’ve got a young developing team that’s trying to get better.

“We can’t guarantee that (win games) but we can guarantee we will have a crack at doing something good outside of the footy club inside the broader community.

“It’s the right thing to do.”

Frankston leaders in the Cure EB strip. Left to right: Ryley Stoddart, Trent Mynott, Will Fordham and Kai Owens.

The Cure EB jumper up close.

The inaugural event back in 2019 was held at The Art Centre and this year’s will be held at Crown Promenade.

Ryan hopes the event can continue to grow and explains how taking the cause on the road spreads awareness to broader communities.

“We’re at Crown Promenade, wouldn’t it be awesome if Frankston footy club could put on an event at Crown Palladium? That’s the dream,” he said.

“When you rebuild a brand, like this footy club, when you attach to other brands, the broader community sees and says ‘okay, Frankston footy club is going places’.

“There’s a reason we got to the city as opposed to having it in Frankston, we attach it to Crown or the Grand Hyatt, the Art Centre, we say ‘hey listen, we’re a growing footy club that wants to be better, so let’s take it to town’.

“The strip is a white strip, it’s an away jumper, so it suits to play an away game, and it’s a great reward for players, coaches and staff to take their partners to town for their support.”

The Dolphins’ men and women begun training in the Cure EB strip side-by-side on Tuesday night.

Since Frankston’s 2022 profit was compared to other stand-alone clubs, the Dolphins’ determination to help others has been put into perspective.

Ryan said the Dolphins have a “find a way” attitude that drives them to do good things.

“It doesn’t matter what size you are, if you have enough will and purpose, you can do anything,” he said.

“I had a small involvement at North (Melbourne) in the 90s, and they won a premiership out of portables before Arden St became what it is.

“I just believe: there’s no such thing as can’t, you find a way.”

The Butterfly Ball currently has 250 attendees but there is still time to purchase tickets to the event.