Heloise Pratt has been awarded Life Membership of the Collingwood Football Club, and is the first female receive the honour in the club’s history.

Pratt’s contribution at Collingwood has been significant, and her impact on the club’s social and community initiatives has been enormous.

She has been the driving force behind the club’s community strategy, not just with her ability to raise funds, but with her expertise, her leadership, her passion and her boundless energy.

The annual Waislitz fundraising event in support of our community projects has become a grand tradition at Collingwood and has always been the highlight event of the year not just at Collingwood but in Melbourne.

Those events, often held at her own home, have raised millions of dollars for the club.

The Collingwood Football Club Community Centre at Victoria Park would not have been possible without her vision and generosity – it is based on her highly successful business model for Visy Community Centres – another of her extraordinary achievements.

The Community Centre at Victoria Park is now one of the biggest community centres of its kind in Australia and allows Collingwood to continue to have a powerful presence at our spiritual home and to have a major role supporting the community that surrounds the ground, and across Melbourne – just as the club has done since 1892.

That Collingwood can continue that proud history is as a direct result of Heloise's magnificent contribution.

There are almost too many club community programs and partnership that Heloise has instigated to mention, but she deserves great credit for the club’s Magpie Nest Program that works to help the homeless and disadvantaged.

The Program has thirty houses around Melbourne, a café providing 2000 free meals each week, and with the Salvos a network of services and support for the most vulnerable people in Melbourne.

Pratt has already received many awards and citations, and last year became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to the community.

At Collingwood, Life Membership is regarded as the highest honour the club can bestow upon an individual.

To become a life member of the club you need to have played in a premiership team, won a Copeland Trophy or played for ten years or more.

These achievements aside, you must have given exceptional service to the club.

Heloise Pratt has made an extraordinary contribution to our club over many years.

In 2015, the club is tremendously proud to announce that Heloise Pratt has become the inaugural female Life Member in the history of the Collingwood Football Club.