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Seventy members and supporters of the Zonta Club of Redcliffe joined the sold-out season opener at Kayo Stadium last week, with Ausbuild‘s community partnership with the Dolphins providing the platform for a domestic and family violence awareness push ahead of a busy advocacy month.
The match, which saw the Dolphins suffer a tough loss to the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in their first home game of 2026, gave Zonta a visibility it rarely gets in a mainstream sporting setting. Members took part in the guard of honour as the teams ran out and appeared in a pre-game interview on the big screen, reaching an audience well beyond the organisation’s usual reach and helping build momentum ahead of Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month in May.
For Zonta Club of Redcliffe President Marie Stewart, that kind of mainstream exposure is exactly the point.
“Even though it wasn’t a great game for the Dolphins, it was a great game for awareness and visibility for Zonta and what we stand for,” she said.
Sport as a Platform for Change
Marie has been involved with Zonta for 19 years and understands better than most that raising awareness of domestic and family violence requires meeting communities where they already are. A rugby league crowd at Kayo Stadium, many of them families, represents precisely the kind of broad and varied audience that can be difficult to reach through traditional advocacy channels.
The Zonta Club of Redcliffe has deep roots on the Peninsula, drawing passionate members from across the Redcliffe, North Lakes, and Mango Hill bayside communities. It is part of Zonta International, a global organisation active in more than 60 countries, focused on advancing the rights and status of women and girls through advocacy, education and direct community action. Locally, the club has a long track record of Dolphins partnerships, including previous Respect Round activations at Kayo Stadium and domestic violence awareness content on the big screen at football games.
The argument for taking that message into sporting venues is clear to Marie, and it centres on young people watching from the stands.
“Little kids look up to sporting heroes, and they have to be good examples,” she said. “If we can work with sports like rugby league, those role models can help reinforce positive behaviour, especially for kids who may not see that at home.”
Ausbuild’s Community Partnership at Work
Ausbuild drove the initiative through its role as the Dolphins’ official Community Partner, a partnership now in its fourth year that has distributed more than $100,000 worth of tickets to community groups and charities across the Moreton Bay region since its 2022 launch.
Each home game, Ausbuild selects a local organisation to receive tickets and a game-day experience, including the guard of honour and big-screen feature that Zonta took part in last week. Ausbuild Joint Managing Director Matthew Bell said the structure of the partnership is designed to do exactly what it did for Zonta: give organisations a rare moment of visibility in front of a large, engaged crowd.
“As Community Partner of the Dolphins, we are privileged to connect with the local community and raise awareness for organisations such as Zonta Club of Redcliffe,” he said. “They play a vital role in supporting awareness for important issues like domestic and family violence.”
Zonta is the third organisation supported through the program in the 2026 season, alongside Undurba State School and Northern Districts Hack and Dressage Club.
What Comes Next
The Kayo Stadium appearance kicks off a month of high-impact advocacy for the club. The Zonta Club of Redcliffe is gearing up for a concentrated period of advocacy across May, including participation in the Moreton Bay Says No to Domestic Violence walk in Redcliffe on Friday, 26 May. The walk, which has run annually on the last Friday of May for more than a decade, brings together individuals, businesses and community organisations to march through the Redcliffe CBD to Settlement Cove Amphitheatre in a public stand against family and domestic violence.
Community groups and organisations across the Moreton Bay region interested in Ausbuild’s 2026 Community Partner program can find out more at ausbuild.com.au. For more information about the Zonta Club of Redcliffe and its upcoming advocacy activities, visit zontaredcliffe.org.au.
Published 20-April-2026
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