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3 November , 2003 Interview Transcript Champions of the Bush Executive Officer Darren Chester ABC Statewide Victoria, Presenter Kathy Bedford. Topic: Fundraising and community events in regional areas Bedford: It seems to be getting harder and harder to raise funds if you are involved in a community organisation. There's a lot of pressure on community and sporting groups these days to raise funds. So tell us what's worked for you. Is it the old chook raffle... or has that become a bit of a lame duck... pardon the pun. What are some of the new ideas for raising a bit of cash for your group? Clever ideas, silly ideas, we want them all this morning. 1300 303 468. Maybe you've got something coming up and we'll give you a little bit of coverage of it... statewide. Joining us on the program is Darren Chester from Champions of the Bush. Good morning Darren. Chester: Good morning Kathy. Bedford: Now Darren I believe over in East Gippsland there's actually a pony related fundraiser that's happening over the next couple of weeks. Chester: That's right Kathy. Melbourne may have the Cup carnival but at the Lakes Entrance Primary School they have the pony plop event as part of their annual fete. I think you understand the concept - it's pretty simple. They mark out a section of the school oval with white lines and then you invite punters to buy a section of land. Once you've sold all the land of course you let the pony loose in the paddock and if he does his business on your bit of turf, you win the prize pool. Bedford: That's fabulous, now that's original. Chester: It's one of the more unusual fundraisers you will see around the place and it's probably a uniquely country way of raising a bit of money. Bedford: It has become more important for local schools, kinders, sporting groups to actually raise part of their own funds hasn't it? Chester: It's a very important part of every community event or community activity. The schools, the sporting clubs... are under a fair bit of pressure these days to raise a bit of money to support their activities. There is a bit of an issue there that perhaps some levels of government could do a bit more sometimes because a fair bit of the burden does fall on the volunteers these days. Country Victoria would come to a grinding halt if the volunteers stopped doing their fundraising work. Bedford: Well let's run through some of the good ideas that you've seen in regional Victoria. What works and what doesn't? Chester: I don't necessarily know if they work or not but some of the funny ones... The nude calendars are always very popular for some reason. We've had a real run of them for a while and with the 'Full Monty' movie there's been a lot of people producing nude calendars for just about anything. There's been quite a few town celebrities who've got their gear off in quite unusual positions and that sort of thing - that was always good fun. One I've seen a bit of lately is the mock weddings - it seems to be the football clubs love doing that. It seems these tough footballers love dressing up in gowns and getting married. Bedford: What? Chester: Haven't you seen that one? Bedford: No. Chester: They get the footballers dressed up in a mock wedding party and they have a bit of a pretend celebration I suppose - a reception and everything else. It's basically all about good food and good wine but they have a fake ceremony as well. Again, it's quite funny seeing the town celebrities dobbed in to be the priest, or the groom, or the bride, as the case may be. Bedford: I like that. Chester: Head shaving. There's a lot of head shaving going on at different times... again with the local town leaders. If you've got a town leader with a beard or a moustache it's always worth a couple of thousand dollars if you can get them to shave that off for some reason. Bedford: Yes - that's a good one. Chester: Billy-cart racing, I've seen a couple of those lately too. There's a great country tradition and they have some races and prizes and it's something that gets the whole family involved. I've seen a couple of those be very successful. Bedford: We want some calls this morning. 1300 303 468. WeÕll find you a prize for the wackiest idea - but what are you doing in your community to raise funds? I guess gone are the days Darren when you just put the jelly beans in the jar - you need to be doing things which are actually going to raise big money these days. Chester: You've got to be creative, you're right. The jelly beans in the jar has still got its place I suppose at the school fete to earn a bit of money. Even the old raffle is still popular but you've got to pay attention to the prizes you've got and who you're trying to get to buy your tickets. I've seen one quite recently where they were raffling a trailer filled with slabs of beer so clearly they were after the blokes to buy tickets in that one. Bedford: We hope so... and over a certain age. Chester: Certainly, over a certain age, or they could have been buying a ticket for dad for Father's Day I presume. Bedford: Darren how important are community events and activities to regional Victoria? Chester: They are enormously important. It would be hard to put a dollar figure exactly on what they are worth to every community. You look at events like, say the Stawell Gift, they can actually put your town on the map. When anyone thinks of Stawell they think of the Stawell Gift. You look at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival which was just on the last weekend. It's become more than a music event. It's an opportunity to showcase the food and wine and the regional attractions. The idea is if you get new people to move to your area and see what a great town it is, then perhaps they might come back a bit more frequently in the future. On the other side of the coin I think we often under-estimate the social importance to our own communities of having events and activities. In many regional communities, the annual festival, or the show, or the big sporting event brings us all together to have a good time. Australians love having a good time, any excuse for a party, just look at the Melbourne Cup. Bedford: Exactly. We're broadening this out a bit now, we're not just talking small fundraising events. When a town develops its own festival - for many of the towns around the regions, they're actually accessing what they're renowned for. Like Ballarat's begonia festival, the canoe marathon up on the Murray, things like that. Chester: That's one of the real big keys to it - build on your own natural advantages or your competitive advantage. If your town is strong in a particular area, well work on that and build it up. A bit of advice, a lot of groups probably need to start small and then build it up over a couple of years. Be a bit patient sometimes. Weather can come in and interfere with an event and you might not have a great success the first year round but be patient and keep working together as a community and you'll be amazed what can be achieved. Some of the really successful ones - like the Ouyen vanilla slice competition - I think our former Premier put that on the map with his passion for vanilla slices. Bedford: And it's something all of their own... it's not being done anywhere else. Chester: That's an example of being creative and perhaps looking around and saying 'there's nothing out there like this one, let's have a crack at that' - the community deserves credit for doing something like that. And the Harrow Beaut Blokes earlier this year - that was a fantastic promotion by the Harrow community. Inviting city girls to meet some eligible country bachelors - we should probably check out if it sparked any romance down that way. Bedford: I must make a note of that, worth a follow up to see if any have lasted. 1300 303 468 to share your unique festival or fundraiser, whatever you're doing in your community to raise money. Talkback caller: Leigh from Nagambie - raised money by towing 250 kilo money box from Canberra to the Gold Coast and raised $53,000 for trees and disadvantaged people. Roseanne from Swan Reach - masks project in Lakes Entrance, auctioning artwork. Bedford: Darren have you heard of that one. Chester: Yes, certainly Kathy. And it-s funny how things like that can capture the imagination of your town and build into something which becomes a real social focus. People just love getting involved. We've got another arts-based one called the Nowa Nowa Nudes - that's an art display - it sounds more exotic than it really is - but it gets a lot of people going out to Nowa Nowa to check out the art display and the local artists love it. Bedford: I guess in all of this it's not just about money it's about communities getting together and particularly that volunteer element that we've spoken about before. Chester: It certainly is - getting our communities together and working together - a lot of the benefit from these community events and activities come before the event with the committee that puts aside the time to organise everything. I've been involved with a few over time and we have a lot fun actually. There's hard work obviously as well and one of the most difficult parts is the issue of fundraising. You're often concerned about 'are we going to get enough money to pay for everything that we're trying to organise'. But it's a lot of fun and really the focus is getting your whole community together and that's a very important thing and something country communities do very, very well. Bedford: I think they do. Darren, always a pleasure chatting to you, we'll catch up with you in a week's time. Chester: Great Kathy. Bedford:
Darren Chester, from Champions of the Bush with some interesting fundraising
ideas there for you.
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