Almost $32,000 will flood Gunnedah shire’s coffers, thanks to its sister city.
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Lane Cove’s drought campaign, Gold for Gunnedah, was a roaring success with In the Cove announcing the total late last week after three months of fundraising.
More than $20,000 was donated through almost 60 collection points including business houses, child care centres, cafes, scout halls, and pre-schools across Lane Cove. A number of fundraising events were also held including Dress like a Farmer Day and Rock on for Rain with former The Voice contestant Tim Conlan. C3 Church Lane Cove alone raised $6500 and Lane Cove Council donated $5000.
The campaign was driven by Jacky Barker, the founder of In the Cove, a popular website and Facebook page, who told the NVI that she was inspired when she saw a Facebook post by Lane Cove councillor Andrew Zbik, which called for the city to support Gunnedah in the midst of the ongoing drought. After reading the NVI’s subsequent articles, she decided to take action.
On Friday, she told the NVI that the Gold for Gunnedah campaign had exceeded her expectations.
“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to all the people who went out of their way to donate money,” Ms Barker said.
“The extent of participation was amazing. I’m so glad that people just took it upon themselves to come up with different ways of raising money and encouraging people to donate, which is fantastic.
“Even people who’d sort of said, ‘We’ll do Buy a Bale’, they decided they’d also divert funds to Gunnedah.”
Ms Barker said it was all “in support of our sister city”.
“People were so generous,” she said.
“It was amazing how many people were putting money in and I think it’s really interesting because people don’t necessarily have a connection with Gunnedah and just to be told it’s our sister city and they donated is lovely.”
More than $20,000 will be distributed by Gunnedah’s Rotary clubs over the coming months and Gunnedah Anglican Church will take submissions from farmers to aid it in distributing C3 Church’s donation.
Ms Barker said she would continue to sell personalised Gunnedah tea towels in the next few months to raise funds for Gunnedah.
Lane Cove Youth Orchestra and Hunters Hill High School have also come on board with drought fundraising, with plans to donate the gold coin entry of their end-of-year concert to Gunnedah farmers. An additional eight schools will participate in the Red Earth Christmas Concert on December 10.
