Steve Wisbey’s new business venture has charity at its heart

Around these parts we don’t have too many people you’d call a celebrity. But if a celebrity is someone who is known by a lot of people, then Steve Wisbey fits the bill nicely.

The trajectory of his life over the past 30 odd years has two horizontal lines.

One is about his day jobs, from being a DJ at local pubs, running his own music store in Camden, to his last, tragic enterprise, upstairs@freds, a wonderful restaurant, bar and the place to be seen.

The other line is about what a good heart Steve Wisbey has and how he helped raise millions of dollars for charities, local and outside Macarthur, in that period.

Two and a half years ago, a fire ripped through upstairs@freds despite the best efforts of local firies.

Ashes and dust was all that was left from more than five years of hard yakka by Wisbey, his partner Mandy and their team at the restaurant.

Wisbey, who is normally a jovial dude that likes a laugh as much as the next person, took it really hard.

But after a long battle with the mental demons, he started thinking about the next stage of his life.

And the result was Cornerstone Community, which is a business with charity at its heart.

As Wisbey tells me, he hopes that it’s a success for two reasons: he will make a living, and the community will benefit from the charity side of it.

“Charity made me happy; doing charity stuff got me the Order of Australia Medal (OAM),’’ he says.

“I want to turn over millions of dollars because in my mind I am giving it all back.’’

So 30 percent of Cornerstone Community profits are locked in for charity, and specifically, one of Wisbey’s favourite initiatives, Blue Wren House, Camden’s women’s shelter.

“It’s a really good cause and I want to help them,’’ he says.

But not content with just supporting one charity a year, Wisbey has added a second charitable cog to Cornerstone Community: Neighbours in Need.

“I want to be able to respond immediately if something comes up and I can help,’’ he says.

Wisbey says Cornerstone already has found one local family they want to help.

They live locally in Oran Park and the couple have a three year old with leukemia – who will require a lot of treatment in the next 12 months.

“They have a mortgage, so how will they pay their bills over the next 12 months? Hopefully Cornerstone Community can help them get through this,’’ says Wisbey.

Readers will be wondering, just as I was while talking to Wisbey, where was the money coming from to Cornerstone Community.

It’s simple really: Cornerstone Community offers three levels of memberships for up to 7000 people each.

For that members get access to discounts, and automatic free entry into the draw for pretty significant prizes every quarter.

As an example, the first level of membership, which costs $20 for three months, is offering as a top prize a $30,000 cost of living beater, which includes $10,000 cash, $10,000 Woolies voucher and a $10,000 Ampol voucher.

“With every level of the membership – unlike others which have unlimited memberships – I have built this so Aussie families can think, we can afford this, we’ll get three months of great discounts of all sorts of retailers and products and services,’’ says Wisbey.

“And as far as the prizes go, there is only going to be 7000 entries from members in every level, which gives you much better odds of winning something.’’

As is his want, Steve Wisbey is throwing everything he’s got at this new venture.

“I’d love to think that if all goes well I can be supporting those who need help for the rest of my life,’’ he says.

• Visit the website to find out more about Cornerstone Community.