T H E B AROSSA MAG | 43
Putting the fun
in fund-raising
WORDS BY ALICIA LÜDI-SCHUTZ
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN KRÜGER
A selfless group of big hearted Barossans are proving the
old cliché of putting “fun” into fundraising is a winner.
Volunteer run organisation, Barossa Area Fundraisers
for Cancer’s mission is to “Financially assist, support,
maintain and improve the quality of life for cancer
patients in the area” and they’ve been doing just that for
10 years.
Founding members, Julie Combe, president and Tash
Goldsmith, secretary still pinch themselves when they
think of how much money the group has raised in the
last decade, with conservative estimates suggesting a
minimum of $600,000.
It was considered a brave step for the Barossa branch
to break away from the nationwide fundraising group
they were originally affiliated with, and although they
appreciated their efforts were “for the bigger picture”,
the fact only 10 percent of the money raised was
returned to their local community bothered members.
“Back then, the Barossa girls were in the running for an
award,” explains Julie.
“We had raised $88,000 in one year… we were the
highest money raisers in regional South Australia. We
thought isn’t it a shame we don’t get more of that? Why
can’t we raise money for our own?”
A meeting at The Clubhouse in Tanunda set the group
on a new path.
“We thought how do we go about starting up our own
fundraising group? First thing was we needed to have
some money so we all put in $2, there were a dozen of
us on that night, so we had $24,” laughs Tash.
“Jack Ferrett came in and asked what are you girls
doing? And he slaps 500 bucks on the table!
“We got a raffle license and raised $1,200 from our $524
– we thought this is great! We can do this.”
Jack was instrumental in helping the group with their
constitution and has since become the group’s patron.
“He’s always been so generous. He was our inspiration to
get going and when we got the constitution, Wyndham
Rogers did all of that for nothing. It was all lovely!” Julie
says.
The group’s first big event was a country music show at
the Vine Inn featuring the Costa Brothers.
Tash admits they had no idea what they were doing but
that didn’t seem to matter because they had a lot of fun
in the process.
“It worked, I think we brought in about $5,000,” she
says.
“We went totally overboard! We had butterflies hanging
from the ceiling… one of the girls from the committee
made them.”