By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE Ferntree Gully Motor Group has topped the $1 million mark in money given back to the local community through its benevolent programs.
Earlier this month, the sixth ‘Great Community Raffle’ – run in partnership with the Rotary Club of Emerald and District – raised a whopping $168,100.
The raffle is a joint-initiative that enables local community groups to enjoy the spoils. The concept was to donate a new car as the first prize in the raffle, and tickets would be sold and distributed by community groups within their local area at no cost to themselves. Every dollar they raised, they could keep.
To keep the raffle on a local level, Ferntree Gully Nissan partnered with an approved charitable organisation.
Enter Emerald Rotary, with which it had an existing relationship for the annual ‘Kids Fun Run with Thomas’.
The Upper Ferntree Gully Junior Football Club this year won the first prize – a Nissan Qashqai valued at around $30,000.
Ferntree Gully Motor Group CEO Craig Pearce thanked Emerald and District Rotary and its members for all their tireless work for this year’s event, adding: “We’re all really proud of what we’re doing here. We do it because we see it as a responsibility that everyone should act on in their community. We’re just simply doing our bit”.
About 200,000 raffle tickets were printed this year, with over 100 local community groups participating in the event.
“We started this raffle with what we thought was a bang in 2010 off the back of the community youth awards that we ran for several years,” Mr Pearce said.
“We were able to raise in that first year just over $87,000 for our community. (But) in reality, this turned out to be a very humble beginning as we’re now in our seventh year and we’ve hit a record this year of $168,100.
“When you add it all together, for the decade – or just under – that we’ve been running our programs we’ve actually now topped the $1 million mark. But The Great Community Raffle in its six years has hit $830,000 and our hope is to actually knock the $1 million over next year just with the raffle alone. We’re really proud of that.”
Mr Pearce announced that for next year’s raffle, the Ferntree Gully Motor Group would put two cars up for grabs.
“At the end of the day, as you all know, you raise the money, you sell the tickets and you keep the money,” he told a Ferntree Gully Nissan showroom packed full of representatives from a range of local community groups.
“It’s all for you anyway, and if there’s another car on the line we might get a few more people out there buying tickets. If we print a few more tickets you’ll all raise more money. That’s the idea, so we’re looking forward to it.”
