12 hours ago, I left home to head to the Honey Bar for Onya Aid – the fundraiser I have been planning with my Onya Magazine friends and fellow Australians who just wanted to do something to help the flood relief efforts in Queensland and Victoria.
3 hours ago, we counted just over $4000 in cash that was raised through admission, lucky dips, silent auctions, a live auction and donations. And that figure is rising while we add up the final tally
Two weeks of planning finally came to fruition today. I was quietly nervous this morning – excited too – but that kind of nervous energy that makes you run on adrenaline and gives you the ability to think clearly and make decisions immediately that you might usually deliberate on for days.
From the moment Onya Magazine editor Sandi Sieger picked me up this morning and all through the setting up, the energy I felt in the room was immense. It’s a pretty Aussie thing to give up your public holiday to help out a mate in need and today we had plenty of people on hand to do their bit for our flood affected friends.
It’s hard to believe only two weeks ago, all was relatively well in Oz. But when the water came and the Queenslanders needed help (and Victoria not long after), we stepped up. While our $4k isn’t much compared to big businesses donating millions of dollars, ours represents the true spirit of the Australian way of life – helping a mate when he needs it. We’ve got your back.
A big thanks must go out to everyone who in any way helped us get the event off the ground today; who donated goods, services, time, knowledge or just came along to support the event – THANK YOU. I can’t believe what we were able to pull together so quickly and we couldn’t have done it without you.
I can’t think of any other way I would want to spend my Australia Day than doing something for our country and although it was a lot of work over the past two weeks (and I did say I was never doing it again!), the payoff – both monetary and the pride I feel – is amazing and I can honestly say I feel like I achieved something great. We achieved something great.
Stay tuned for the pics and the video (yep, we have a video!!), I am sure the footage of me blowing up balloons and struggling with the stairs (gym squats the night before a big event are clearly a no-no for the future) will be a hoot and show those who couldn’t make it the fun we had. Because it was fun.
Happy Australia Day peeps. I hope to be blogging a bit more now that Onya Aid is behind us, but for now it’s time for a well earned Good Night!
