Putting on a show: The scene outside the Gladstone Hotel in Dookie for the show and shine fundraiser.
How does a collection of small communities raise $100,000 for a children’s hospital?
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By going hard at it — not just for one day, but for a whole year.
The Devenish and Dookie districts have just completed another 12 months of fundraising for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, and this time they have been placed fifth in the list of generous communities, beating a range of regional cities and towns.
Child’s play: Leevi Graham was the youngest spruiker at the Dookie show and shine fundraiser.
Devenish Dookie & District Committee president Paul Durden puts it down to a caring community who have been touched by the work of the hospital, and to the generous businesses and organisations who have given up goods and services for fundraising.
“We’ve got a good bunch of volunteers, too, who have been helping out; it’s not just a one-off, it’s a 12 months thing,” Mr Durden told Country News.
“It’s great to be part of such a good community. People have really got behind this.”
The activities of the past year have included Bunnings barbecues, yabby races, an online auction (which raised $33,000), a lamb drive ($31,000), barefoot bowls, dog trials and the recent show and shine at Dookie.
Mr Durden said one man paid $250 for an auctioned meat tray. “He told us: ‘I wanted to come out and put something in, so why not do it this way?’.”
Shiny: One of the vehicles on show at the Dookie show and shine.
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