The animals are usually the main attraction at Australia Zoo but they had to share the spotlight with the Coast’s latest pin-up stars today.

Although the kids from the Sunshine Coast Children’s Therapy Centre were keener on playing with reptilian residents, their parents and friends had come to see the launch of the centre’s annual fundraising calendar.Featuring photos of kids and their families taken during a fun day out at the zoo last month, the calendar has become one of the centre’s key annual fundraising ventures since it began with the concept five years ago.

The therapy centre’s director Frank Martin said the decision to include family members in the calendar for the first time was made to reflect the fact that learning to live with a disability was not just a lesson for the disabled but their family members too.

“If a child has a disability then it really has some effect on every member of the family and I guess that’s a connection we wanted to convey,” he said.Mr Martin hoped to raise about $20,000 from sales of the 2009 calendar, money which would go towards the $400,000 needed to expand the centre’s 11-year-old Windsor Road premises in Nambour.

With the help of federal and state funding and donations from the community Mr Martin said the centre aims to begin construction of extra office space and more therapy and counselling rooms.

“With a lot of the children our main thrust is to improve their mobility and communication skills to the point where they can participate in mainstream education,” he said.The therapy centre’s 2009 calendar is available for sale from the centre itself and Bank of Queensland branches across the Coast.