Last Friday ten staff from Castlemaine Arcare braved the cold wintery weather and allowed themselves to be dunked into the freezing water of the dunk tank, much to the joy of the residents and onlookers.
The Arcare Castlemaine Big Freeze Fundraiser has raised more than $2000 for Motor Neurone Disease (MND), more than doubling their original $1000 goal, with $731 in cash donations on the day, a huge $500 donation from Big 4 Caravan Parks Castlemaine and the Residence Manager Catherine McDonald donating $50 for each staff member that was dunked – a total of $500 for the 10 staff members that participated.
“Community engagement is an integral part of Arcare’s value system and being a home of avid footy fans, the residents and team have jumped on board to make this MND fundraiser a community event,” Catherine said.
The original idea sprang from one of the Arcare residents, Dot Farley who told Patrick Merrin (Arcare staff member) that she’d pay money to see him get a bucket of ice poured over his head.
“I mentioned the idea to Peter Dolan and it grew from there,” commented Patrick.
“Being footy season and with the focus on the upcoming ninth installment of ‘The Big Freeze at the G’ Melbourne v Collingwood match on Monday we decided to hold the fundraiser to coincide with the AFL event.”
Arcare Castlemaine would like to say a big thank you to their sponsors – Luke’s Plumbing, Jim’s Mowing and Cain’s Suck ‘Em Up Gutter Cleaning.
Donations are still open at: hub.fightmnd.org.au/diy-big-freeze-9/arcare-castlemaine-fightmnd-1 so hop on and donate today.