Purple Soup? Strange name, great concept! Sharing recreation with very special children worldwide. Like chicken soup, Purple Soup has a healing quality. A simple concept that was conceived by Tim Marchinton and Melissa Middleton four years ago after journeys that brought them together personally and professionally.

The name purple soup was founded by a little girl that was seriously ill. This little girl created a song in her mind at the start of camp and sung it to her peers. It was called Purple Soup. Her legacy lives on in the play that Purple Soup creates and takes worldwide.

Purple Soup, believes that play and laughter can act as a vehicle for individual healing, both mentally or physically. Studies have shown that laughter, fun and wholesome recreation can significantly improve a patients ability to fight infection and further speed recovery. Purple Soup’s camps, day programs, and many other projects aim to facilitate just that.

Tim and Melissa have almost 15 years of experience between them in the recreational field and have found their way into recreation for different reasons.

Tim loves adventure! Raft Guide, Fire fighter, Trip Leader, Mountaineer, 35 countries. Tim has been involved in the magic of camp based programs for many years. His natural ability with children is captivating. He eventually found himself travelling worldwide within the camping industry and began to focus his career on seriously ill children. Purple Soup sees him practice his adaptive adventure programs, roaming magic and create amazing theme days for “time out” programs. Tim is also a highly experienced ABEL corporate training facilitator.

Melissa had a sister with Cystic Fibrosis, whom she lost in 1989, at age 15. Melissa became quite disillusioned due to her own battle with the same disease and also felt, that her now broken family, had become victim to Cystic Fibrosis also. Melissa stayed in good health but emotionally suffered for many years with her mother being diagnosed with Cancer in 1993. After losing her mother in 1997 Melissa realized that her destiny was children and families like hers, thus establishing the new siblings programs launched Australia wide in November 2003. Melissa is studying Grief and Loss to extend her expertise for Purple Soup. She has worked extensively in the recreation industry in Ireland, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and in Australia.

Together, Tim and Melissa’s vision, is to service children globally with their unique and diverse programs. They are presently honing their siblings program in Australia, nationally, and are pursuing international projects with optimism and determination. Melissa and Tim embrace the help of many volunteers, without which Purple Soup would merely be just a dream!