By Taylah Eastwell
An Emerald woman’s magical Christmas display has provided a surprising Christmas gift for a local community care charity.
Fernlea Community Care were chosen as recipients of $10,000 in prize money after Emerald resident Sheena Williams took out a Bunning’s competition for the best Christmas decorations.
Ms Williams is an “all-round Christmas addict” and has been collecting Lemax Christmas village decorations for 30 years. Her growing display takes up an entire room each festive season, with family and friends invited over to see the magical wonderland each year.
Ms Williams, who works for Bunning’s, submitted a photo of her display to an internal employee competition titled ‘Challenge Accepted’, which sought photographs of anything Christmas related in order to bring cheer after an otherwise difficult year. The prize for the winner of each state was money donated by Bunning’s to a charity of their choice.
To her surprise, Ms Williams was labelled the Victorian winner of the competition.
Ms William’s partner, Jackie, said they both had no idea the prize money was of such a large amount.
“We thought it might be a hamper, or at best, a BBQ. When Sheena found out she was absolutely floored,” Jackie said.
Ms Williams chose Fernlea Community Care to be the recipient of the money for the amazing work they do not only in the Emerald community, but also much further afield.
“Sheena had to ring Fernlea to let them know and say, guess what, Bunning’s are giving you $10,000, it sounded like a hoax,” Jackie said.
Once Ms William’s explained what the competition was all about, Fernlea were grateful to have been chosen.
CEO of Fernlea Community Care, Sue McIvor said the team at Fernlea is grateful, especially to Sheena and the team at Bunnings, who nominated Fernlea as their preferred charity.
“You can be assured that the money will go towards helping us deliver our community services to people with a life-limiting illness,” she said.
