Puddle Jumpers founder Melanie Tate

To launch a children’s charity is to be a modern-day superhero. And while Melanie Tate can’t necessarily leap tall buildings in a single bound, she can certainly jump off them.

“We just had a fundraiser where we had 48 people abseil off the top of the Intercontinental Hotel,” she explains. “It was the biggest fundraiser we’ve ever done – and oh my god, it was terrifying!”

Melanie is the founder and CEO of Puddle Jumpers, a charity that promotes the social development of vulnerable children. In practice, that typically means running camps and events, mentoring volunteers and young people, and holding regular Free Food Nights for disadvantaged families rather than getting strapped into a harness 91 metres above North Terrace.

“I don’t even do rides at the Royal Show!” she laughs. “And I wasn’t originally planning on doing it myself, but one of the team said: ‘How could you look young people in the face and tell them that they could achieve anything if you couldn’t do that?’ And I thought: ‘You know, you’re actually right: I might be scared, but I’m going to let my wobbly legs shake me off the side of a building!’”

That’s the fearless determination Melanie has shown since founding Puddle Jumpers in 2012, along with her passion for giving kids an opportunity for “happy, safe, healthy childhoods where they have a chance to just be kids”.

Helping kids know that people care

Those abseiling funds are going to a very worthy cause since Puddle Jumpers started helping South Australians through the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic downturn, at the same time the lockdowns temporarily shut their South Road Op Shop which provides much of their day-to-day funding.  

“The demand for food relief has been absolutely huge, it’s risen about 350 per cent,” says Melanie. “And with COVID we lost almost all of our volunteers and funding overnight, and had this massive increase for food and had to move to a larger warehouse. So we have had to come up with inventive ways to manage the increase in demand.”

That’s on top of the core activities of Puddle Jumpers, including the camps which are attended by more than 600 disadvantaged children a year. It’s about giving families relief while offering children a familiar group of people they can rely upon.

“They spend some time with us and we become a part of their extended family – people they know who are reliable and consistent and that they know care about them.”

Many of the people who attended the earliest camps are now volunteers themselves, which fills Melanie with particular pride. “I don’t think anything could feel as good as knowing you’ve helped people through their hardest times. I feel like I’m blessed with having so many people I feel connected to, and that I belong to.”

No-one said being a superhero would be easy, but Melanie’s up to the challenge. “The job can be physically and emotionally exhausting,” she says, “but it’s also an amazing feeling to know that you’ve helped kids feel safe, healthy, and happy.”