Draw 378 VIP Insider, Win a luxury Coolangatta apartment or $2.75 million in gold by rslartunion

INSIDER ME OR GO GOLD• •GO HO

OR GOLD

MILLION GOLD Your membership matters. Thank you for supporting Australia’s veterans and their families.

ISSUE 146 JULY 2020 ART UNION 378

CO NTE NTS 3

A thank you from Chairman John Strachan OAM

Go home or go gold

Explore the luxury apartment

Floor plans and financials

A family resurrected by REBOOT Recovery

Coming up: an exclusive look at our next draw

B U Y YO U R EXTRA TICKETS! Visit rslartunion.com.au or call our VIP hotline! Australia 1300 775 847 (1300 RSL VIP) New Zealand 0800 450 970 International +61 7 3088 5878 Each ticket sold helps Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s veterans and their families.

RSL Art Union No. 378 Draw closes 8pm AEST Wednesday 26 August 2020 Drawn 10am AEST Wednesday 2 September 2020 PICTURED: The apartment is decorated to exude contemporary luxury and elegance COVER IMAGE: Actual ocean view from your entire 19th floor apartment at breakfast time

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER, ALWAYS.

John Strachan OAM Chairman RSL Art Union

Thank you for your continued support of our Defence family by securing your VIP tickets in our latest prize draw, Draw 378.

Imagine getting to make a $2.75 million choice! Would you go home or go gold? You could choose the luxury Coolangatta apartment and own an exclusive piece of Gold Coast oceanfront real estate! Located in the stylish Sanbano complex, you could have a sea change and move straight into this high-end address. This is the perfect beachfront paradise, with views spanning from Surfers Paradise all the way to the Gold Coast hinterland. Or, choose the $2.75 million in gold to spend as you wish! Would you buy your dream home (or two!) or invest it and watch it grow? If you’re the lucky winner, the choice will be yours! RSL Art Union – there’s nothing like it. Each ticket sold helps Australia’s veterans their families, such as providing access to mental health and wellness programs. One such example is the REBOOT Recovery program, which helps veterans look at the root cause of emotional trauma on their journey to recovery. Read more about this program and how it has helped veteran Andy Cullen on page 9. Thank you once again for your ongoing support and best of luck in this draw. Yours sincerely,

John Strachan OAM Chairman RSL Art Union

Go home If you’re the lucky winner of Draw 378, it’s your choice between

Choose the luxury Coolangatta apartment

This oceanfront paradise floats in the clouds, spanning the entire 19th floor of the Sanbano complex. Featuring an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area, plus three bedrooms each with a balcony, three bathrooms, a media room and private spa, the home is the epitome of luxurious elegance. With ocean views spanning from Surfers Paradise all the way to the Gold Coast hinterland, it truly is the best of Coolangatta.

Go gold a luxury home OR $2.75 million in gold. Which one would you choose?

Or pocket

$2.75 million in gold! How would you spend $2.75 million in gold? Imagine the options it could bring! You could buy or even build your dream home (or two!), get a boat, plan a holiday, or start a trust fund for the kids. The choice is yours, spend, save or invest. Regardless, it could change your life!

Both options include a $2,000 travel voucher.

LIVING

Welcome to your luxury apartment at Sanbano, Level 1901/60 Marine Parade, Coolangatta, QLD 4225

The moment you enter through your private foyer, you are instantly enveloped in panoramic views, with floor-to-ceiling windows bringing the ocean into the home and every room soaked in natural light. This spacious 316 sqm home is professionally styled to have all the luxuries of five star living. It’s the perfect beachfront paradise.

Apartment features: •

The Coolangatta apartment, located in the exclusive Sanbano complex, is only steps from the beach and offers 316 sqm of elegance and luxury spanning the entire 19th floor.

•

The apartment features three bedrooms each with their own balcony, plus an openplan living space for all your entertaining needs, complete with a private media room and spa. The home includes furniture and electrical appliances.

•

Live in the heart of popular Coolangatta only steps from the beach and surrounded by local cafes, restaurants and parklands.

•

Enjoy five star resort-style facilities, including an infinity edge pool, gym and private residents club with a lounge, dining room, terrace and kitchen.

•

Secure underground parking for two cars.

Want to see more photos of your luxury apartment? Check out the images and take a virtual tour at rslartunion.com.au

316 SQM

+ 1 powder room

SPA

(private)

POOL (shared)

GYM

(shared)

MASTER BEDROOM

AL FRESCO

ENSUITE

ENTRANCE

Resident's club with lounge and private dining room

SAUNA (shared)

Personal concierge service

Your luxury full-floor apartment

Or choose

$2.75 MILLION in gold

119,600

105,512

FURNITURE & ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

Financial inclusions:

P R I VA T E S P A

•

The home includes $105,512 worth of furniture and electrical appliances, designed to create a luxurious and elegant space with rich fabrics and brass tones, accompanied by coastal touches.

•

Rates, water and body corporate paid for the first 12 months, valued at $23,113.

•

Legal transfer fees paid, valued at $1,375.

•

Both options include a $2,000 travel voucher.

BALCONY BALCONY SPA DINING

BALCONY

KITCHEN

SPA KITCHEN

YO U R LO C A L B E AC H

ENTRANCE LIFT

LAUNDRY

LOBBY

ENSUITE STORE

BEDROOM 2

ROBE

MASTER BEDROOM LIFT

LIFT

BEDROOM 2

LOBBY

ENSUITE

LAUNDRY

BATHROOM

ROBE

MASTER BEDROOM ROBE

ROBE

MEDIA ROOM STORE

STORE AL FRESCO

BATHROOM

BEDROOM 3 ENTRANCE

STORE ROBE

AL FRESCO

ROBE MEDIA ROOM

STORE

DINING

POWDER

LIVING

BEDROOM 3

POWDER

BALCONY

STORE

LIVING

LIFT

ENSUITE

BALCONY ENSUITE

BALCONY

A FAMILY RESURRECTED BY REBOOT RECOVERY

Andy Cullen’s battle with PTSD put enormous pressure on his young family. But having benefited from participating in the REBOOT Recovery program in the USA, he and wife Zoe have succeeded in their mission to bring it to veterans and their partners in Australia. Watching Andy and Zoe Cullen interact with each other and their children, you can’t help but notice how close they are. So, it’s a surprise to hear them talk about how disconnected Andy was from his family after his second deployment. “I thought that him going away for a year was the hardest thing I had to do. But when Andy came back after that second deployment, he changed into a completely different person. It was like somebody had flicked a switch. He had gone from being a wonderful father, very compassionate, very sensitive to his kids, sensitive to me. And came back and there was just no care factor at all,” Zoe says.

Andy explains that his deployment had lived up to every expectation he’d ever had, but also challenged him both emotionally and spiritually. “I started to have some issues. Over there I was confronted with a lot of death and murder and value of life that differed to my understanding of the world. And that challenged me. It challenged my spirit, it challenged my understanding of the world that we lived in and it started to impact me internally, a lot more than I really expected it would,” he says. With a father whose Army career spanned 50 years, Andy thought he knew what to expect from a life in service. He joined the 9

Andy Cullen has regained a close connection with his family after the REBOOT Recovery course.

Army straight out of school, serving six years in the Royal Australian Infantry and 11 as an Officer in the Royal Australian Engineers where he specialised in Explosive Ordnance Disposal. During that time, he was deployed to Afghanistan twice. COMING HOME “I was so looking forward to just coming home, seeing the kids, seeing Zoe. I had just that sort of romantic idea of coming home to my family and everything’s going to be great. And it was. It was like that for a few days at least,” Andy says. “But then I’d just find my mind wandering back to Afghanistan. I felt like I was letting my mates down that were still there. The war was still going on, but I was at home or walking around a supermarket and it didn’t feel right. I felt like a square peg in a round hole.” Andy first became aware that he was suffering some of the symptoms of PTSD after his first deployment, but pushed back his concerns for fear he’d be seen as weak. When he was given the opportunity to go back to Afghanistan, he jumped at it. And while he was over there, the symptoms eased. “It wasn’t until I got back from that second deployment that I really started to understand that these symptoms weren’t going away,” Andy explains. “In fact, they were getting worse. I’d started to get stress rashes on my

body, and I was extremely agitated all the time. Loud noises would freak me out. I was jumpy, I was on edge, I was tired because I’d never really slept. I isolated myself from my family and my friends. I wouldn’t tell anyone what was going on, I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it.” “I think the scariest thing for me, was I had a complete loss of empathy for the world. It was like I just became so internally focused on my own trauma that I didn’t give a crap about anything else.” “When you come back from war, you’re told, ‘Oh look, it’s going to take about three months before things go back to normal.’ So, you’re sort of used to walking on eggshells for a little bit. But about six months in, I realized that we were still walking on eggshells,” Zoe says. JOURNEY TO RECOVERY The couple began searching for answers, visiting doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, and attending various group therapies. “Some of the stuff helped in certain ways but it didn’t in others. And I was just left with this great void in my heart and in my mind that was saying I was broken, and I didn’t know how to put it back together,” Andy says. Having written a book together about their

experiences, Andy and Zoe were on a book tour in the United States when they first heard of the REBOOT Recovery program. “It wasn’t a program where you come in and just talk about your feelings like I’d been exposed to in Australia. This was a course that was designed to give people real tools and equip them for dealing with the symptoms that were going on in their life as a result of PTSD.” Andy says the course echoed many of their experiences and the healing mechanisms that he and Zoe had stumbled across in their own five-year journey. “We just knew we needed to share this, and we needed to bring REBOOT Recovery to Australia.” REBOOT Recovery is a four-day course that provides practical long-term solutions for dealing with the internal values conflict that can be caused by traumatic experiences. “We don’t just look at the symptoms like anger or isolation or alcoholism and drug abuse,” explains Andy. “We go a little deeper. We look at the root cause of why that’s happening in their lives and that’s often triggered by trauma. So, we look at things like forgiveness of self and others, guilt, shame, suicidal ideation. We start to take a deeper look at some of the impacts and an emotional experiences they’re having or the personal responses they’re having to the trauma that they’ve faced. And we give them real tools to be able to deal with issues when they occur.” HEALING TOGETHER The Cullens encourage veterans and their partners to do the REBOOT Recovery course together. “REBOOT focusses on the understanding that PTSD doesn’t impact an individual. It impacts everyone around that individual, including the

kids, the spouse, the friends and family,” Andy explains. Zoe agrees. “You’re not meant to go through the recovery process alone. You need a partner, you need a team, whether it’s your support person or your friends. It’s very important to communicate what your needs are so that people around you know how they can support you. “Communication breakdown is one of the first things to occur in a relationship with somebody with PTSD. When Andy and I had the opportunity to do the REBOOT course together, I found it incredibly enlightening for me as a partner. It was a wonderful way to gain an insight into what Andy was going through without him being the one to tell me,” she says. “After we did the REBOOT course, our relationship improved for the better. For the first time, I got a bit of hope that we could actually navigate through this difficult journey together. It gave us the skills to be able to recognise when the other person was struggling, and to be able to ask the right questions.” Andy realises how lucky he is to have regained his connection to Zoe and their four children. “I’m so thankful now I’ve recovered that and I’m in a loving relationship. I love my kids, and I’ve got a beautiful relationship with my wife.”

Register for REBOOT Recovery Thanks to support from RSL Queensland, PTSD Resurrected is able to provide the REBOOT Recovery course to veterans and their partners at no cost. To find out more or register for the next REBOOT Recovery course, visit rslqld.org/ Find-Help/PTSD-Resurrected

COMING NEXT

D R AW 3 7 9

FRESHWATER, SYDNEY

PALM BEACH, GOLD COAST *Subject to State/Territory licensing approval

DRAW 376 WINNER’S STORY D R AW 3 7 6

“You’re joking! Is this a genuine call?” The RSL Art Union team was full of anticipation as they attempted to contact the winner of Draw 376. After returning from her morning bike ride, Kim* received a phone call from RSL Queensland’s Chief Executive Officer, Melanie Wilson, to inform her that she is now the owner of an instant property portfolio worth $2.4 million. Early July has been an exciting time for announcing winners - we also announced the winner of this quarter’s VIP $100K Quarterly Cash Draw. You can read all our winners’ stories by visiting rslartunion.com.au/winners. Name changed to maintain confidentiality

PRIZE VALUE Draw 376 1st Prize: $2,439,208

TICKET NO

BOOK / VIP

02529288

$20 Book * AU376 Sales Reference Number

VIP CLUB MEMBERS ONLY

$5K

PAY DAY

BONUS WEEKLY CASH DRAW

GUAR ANTEED ENTRY INTO ALL 10 PRIZE HOME DR AWS!

T WO $1.9 MILLION GOLD VIP DR AWS EVERY YEAR

BONUS WEEKLY DR AWS WORTH $5,000 EACH

VIP CLUB MEMBERS ONLY

$100K

BONUS QUARTERLY CASH DRAW

BONUS QUARTERLY DR AWS WORTH $100,000 EACH