General News
8 October, 2026
‘Superhero’ kids need help
A ‘SUPERHERO’ foster care campaign has been launched at the Cairns Taipans’ first home game of the season – and the towels ran out before the game did.
IFYS foster and kinship care strung a clothesline of 250 towels along the concourse of the Cairns Convention Centre.
IFYS operations manager Sally-Ann Eakin said a child picked one and the adult with them pegged it to the child’s shoulders with two timber pegs engraved with the campaign’s name.
“By tip-off every towel was gone and the Taipans went on to beat the Tasmania JackJumpers 93 to 87 in front of 4636 fans,” she said.
“The campaign asks one question of every adult in Far North Queensland: Are you ready to raise the next superhero?
“Superhero turns the usual picture of foster care around. The child is the superhero and the carer is the adult who sees it first.
“The towels did not stay with the kids. Some of the oldest fans in the building asked for one and wore it proudly for the whole game.”
IFYS managing director Tony Pignata wore his all evening while he pegged towels on to children. When two kids arrived for the last one on the line, he took his own off his shoulders and pegged it on to the second child.
“That is the whole campaign in one moment. A kid who needs someone to notice and an adult who does,” said Ms Eakin.
“We had grandparents in towels, teenagers in towels and a lot of parents asking the question we hoped they would ask – which is what it actually takes to become a foster carer,” she said.
Taipans commercial partnerships manager Mark Salomone said their fans turned up for the team every week.
“Seeing 250 kids in towels at our first home game showed what Cairns looks like when it turns up for its kids too,” he said.
Ms Eakin said Far North Queensland needed more foster carers, so that children who could not live at home, could stay close to their school, their friends and their community.
“Many people who would make good carers have already ruled themselves out because they are older, single, renting or working full time,” she said.
“None of those rules a person out and carers can start small with short-break care, a weekend or a few days at a time.
“Nobody does this alone. Our team trains every carer and is on the end of the phone when it gets hard.
“If the Taipans game got you thinking, go to fostercare.com.au. That is the first step and it costs nothing to ask.”
IFYS has been a partner of the Cairns Taipans for 12 years. The club’s IFYS game night is on Friday 12 February 2027, when the campaign returns to the convention centre. The campaign closes on one question: ‘If not you, who?
To find out more about becoming a foster carer, visit www.cnslocal.s.gy/jBUg42 or call IFYS Far North Queensland on 4032 9010.
