Could there be anything more quintessentially Aussie?
When it comes to diplomacy, there is always the option of sotto-voiced meetings in thick-carpeted offices, but United States ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy is savvier than that - she's won the hearts and minds of Aussies by picking up the tongs and cooking some snags at a Bunnings sausage sizzle fundraiser in Canberra.
Ambassador Kennedy and members of the US embassy team turned the snags and tossed the onions on the barbie at Bunnings Canberra Airport at Majura Park on Sunday to raise funds for the Cancer Council ahead of their participation in the Autumn Shitbox Rally.
Ms Kennedy will be helping to drive a shitbox (aka a really crap car) worth less than $1500 from Adelaide to Perth, a distance of 2695 kilometres, from April 12 to April 20.
The Shitbox Rally, the Cancer Council's largest annual fundraiser, is part of the US embassy and consulate's Cancer Moonshot Initiative. The campaign highlights "an essential dimension of the US-Australia alliance: our shared experience with and collaboration on cancer research, prevention, and treatment".
The effort to cure cancer has been likened to the dream-that-became -a-reality: to travel to the moon. Ambassador Kennedy's father, US President John F. Kennedy's Moonshot speech, delivered in 1962, outlined the determination to get to the moon and achieve other big dreams "not because they are easy, but because they are hard". Seven years later, the United States succeeded in putting the first humans on the moon.
"Like every family, my family and embassy families have lost too many people we love to cancer," Ms Kennedy said.
"In September 2022, on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's Moonshot speech, President Biden relaunched the Cancer Moonshot: an ambitious effort to end cancer as we know it. We know that no one country can end the fight against cancer alone, and the United States has no better partner in this fight than Australia. We can't wait to highlight the work being done in both the United States and Australia to advance research, share best practices, and improve the lives of people with cancer, survivors, and their families."
Since her arrival in Australia in July, 2022, to take up her role, Ambassador Kennedy has packed a lot of Aussie - and Canberra - experiences into her diary.
She's been to Summernats, gone surfing, bought some Bluey picture books, watched the Matildas at the FIFA Women's World Cup, helped to shear a sheep at the Royal Canberra Show and, famously, became an honorary Canberran by wearing the city's unofficial uniform, a puffer jacket, during the colder months.
But she's also been keen to support charities and professionals at the forefront of research into some of the world's biggest health issues.
Earlier this month, ambassador Kennedy visited the Melanoma Institute of Australia, whose co-directors Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer were also announced in January as the Australians of the Year for their work saving the lives of thousands of Australians from melanoma.
She has also visited the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and, previously, supported the Shitbox Rally by attending a Bunnings barbie, at Fyshwick, in 2022 to buy a sausage sandwich. On Sunday, she was finally allowed the honour of holding the tongs herself, with her husband Dr Edwin Schlossberg also having a turn on the barbie.
She said on Sunday that she did believe a cure for cancer was possible, just as her father believed travel to the moon could also be a reality. That was especially so after meeting "so many inspiring scientists in Australia".
"Having met the people that I've met, I could not be more hopeful," she said.
James Freeman, meanwhile, started Shitbox Rally after losing both his parents to cancer within 12 months.
In the last 13 years, the Shitbox Rally has raised $40 million to cancer research. This year's autumn rally has already raised more than $1.5 million.
His idea to beat cancer was to "drive a $1000 rust bucket through some of Australia's roughest roads".
Mr Freeman said of the rally and the way it makes a difference: "It's hugely rewarding. It's one of the best feelings I think you can gave".
Ambassador Kennedy said she hadn't stopped soaking up the Aussie culture.
"I've got a lot more to go, talk to me when I get to the end," she said.
"But I'm really excited about this and just the welcome that I've received here in Australia."
Where's Oodnadatta? This April, we're going to find out! As part of our U.S.-Australia Cancer Moonshot Initiative, we're joining @BoxRallies in the Outback to support @CancerCouncilOz.
— U.S. Embassy Australia (@USEmbAustralia) February 8, 2024
To support the cause and learn more: https://t.co/RqxpiiZYeA pic.twitter.com/waJld6jwRG
- To donate to the US Embassy's fundraising efforts in the autumn Shitbox Rally for the Cancer Council, the link is here.
