Milton Community support FARA NZ with Fundraising Event

Written by Denise Finch

Dean and Glen Finch – Friedreich Ataxia Fundraising Event 18th June 2016.

We started our fundraiser back in March.We are fortunate to have an Auntie and Uncle who own Milford Helicopters and we asked them if they would donate a flight as one of the major prizes in our raffle. We then asked another friend who has a motel in Te Anau if she would give two nights accommodation. As Dean used to work in Milford Sound he asked if we would be able to get a boat cruise as part of the package and they agreed.The raffle tickets sold really well. We gave them to relatives, other FAers and to anyone else who would sell them for us. Mum also went door knocking and sitting down town on a busy Friday and we sold heaps.It was then time to think about what we would do at this Fundraising Event. Dean’s school friend Phillip Scott plays in a band called “Who Knows”, Dean asked if they would play at our Fundraising Event and they said yes.Glen is a keen hunter and shot a deer (we did hope for some wild pork but he was not able to get one before the event). Another friend donated a sheep and we had sausages and paddies made by the local butcher at no charge. A farmer whose farm Glen hunts on offered to do a lamb for roasting on a spit as well. Bush Road Salads kindly donated some salads and Mum made a couple more.We both work at Toko Timber Ltd so we asked their suppliers, local businesses and crafty friends if they would be prepared to donate goods for an auction we would hold on the night. Some said they couldn’t but would be prepared to give a donation to FARA NZ.The Event started at 4 p.m. and we were over moon at the response of the locals. The Milton RSA has not seen so many people for a long long time. The bar staff estimated there was about 240 people inside and another 30 or so outside.Kylie (Dean’s partner) did face painting and run a lucky dip along with a fishing game for the children this meant the children were occupied while the adults indulged in a few bevies. We also had two raffles running on the night.The spit roast lamb and BBQ were ready about 5.30 p.m., people filed through the kitchen and got what they wanted to eat then the auction started around 6 p.m. We wanted to get the auction finished by the time the test match started at 7.30p.m. The auction was a huge success and people were happy to pay over the value for some things.Everyone watched the test match and then the dancing started. By this time all the children had gone home and the adults could party. We drew the raffles later in the evening. We did hope the local constabulary would be available to witness this but he was called away. He said just to get a respectable citizen of the community to watch over what we were doing. We did this but when it came time for him to check the numbers our respectable citizen had forgotten his glasses and couldn’t see the numbers. The band stopped playing about 12.45 p.m. and the duke box started up. By 1p.m. the bar staff had stopped serving and by about 2 p.m. nearly everyone had gone home.Everyone was talking about our Fundraising Event on the streets on Monday morning and said what a great night they had had and we had raised $11,531 on the night and received another $9,396.00 in donations for FARA NZ money that will support Friedreich Ataxia Research so we were very happy too.