By Vinnie Todd
Somerton Hotel’s Jason and Cherie Steele were somewhat overwhelmed at the support received for last weekend’s Chip For Charity Fundraiser where a massive $6700 was raised for the Cancer Council.
Despite the day kicking off slowly, it picked up considerably after 1pm, but then didn’t wind down until midnight, according to Jason Steele.
“It was an amazing day, and particularly good to get the whole community involved, their support was overwhelming, we even had staff working for nothing,” he said.
The charity day had a smorgasbord of attractions from woodchopping, raffles and vintage car/tractor display to a smoked oven meal, live band, jumping castle for the kids and plenty to chooses from in the market stalls. But one attraction of note was the Chip For Charity’s – “unofficial Somerton PGA Event” according to Jason, who joked that plenty of practice would have to be carried out before competitors fronted up for next year’s event.
“No–one got the Hole-In-One. The closest was 300ml off the hole, despite them launching over 400 balls at the hole, so it wasn’t for the want of trying. We had half a dozen woodchoppers giving a great display, plenty of stalls were on hand, and thenthe band kicked off about 4pm. The raffle was really popular – we sold the last book about 5pm so drew it.”
The success of the raffle was largely due to “strong sponsorships from Attunga Lime Mine, Gunnedah Kubota, TPE and Stock & Crop at Barraba” Jason said.
Though sponsorships go hand in hand with community support, and that’s what overwhelmed Cherie Steele most.
“People have so much more to do in their lives, but yet they still made the effort and time to support us. We even had people, right up until midnight, still throwing money into the cancer donation box,” she said.
