Airservices Australia is thrilled to be donating over $100 000 to the Good Friday Appeal due to the hard work of our aviation rescue fire fighters in Melbourne.
The dedicated team, who has been supporting the appeal for 27 years, raised $55,275 by hitting the streets to ‘rattle tins’ over the Easter weekend.
This year Airservices also promised to match their effort dollar for dollar if they reached their target of $35,000 – a target which was well and truly smashed.
This means a total of $110,550 will be donated to the appeal in total from Airservices.
Staff at Airservices’ Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service (ARFFS) in Melbourne have been supporting the Good Friday Appeal since 1993.
Since then they’ve raised over $300,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital through a range of activities such as running 22km from Melbourne Airport to Flinders Street.
Fundraising co-ordinator Lockie Saint-John said this year’s promise by Airservices provided a huge motivational boost for the fundraising team.
“It was certainly a driver for a lot of people, knowing that we had an opportunity to make some big money,” he said.
“For me it is really pleasing that Airservices are going down this path of supporting charitable organisations.
“There is a lot more to life than profit and loss, and these funds will help make improvements in the lives of sick children.”
A full year of planning by the fundraising team goes into each event to work out how they can top the previous year’s record.
This year the funds were raised by activities including selling over 700 sausages, auctioning off sports memorabilia, an appearance by Humphrey B Bear and a children’s obstacle course.
