Freemasons raise $10,000 for Business with a Heart

It was with short notice that Bunnings West Gosford reached out to Bro Alex Mountain of the Central Coast Lodge to ask if they could fill in for a last-minute BBQ cancellation.

Despite little notice, our volunteers swung into action and managed to raise $3,000 on the day for the Business with a Heart charity program. Added to ongoing fundraising efforts by the Lodge, the help of Freemasons on the Central Coast who paid for the supplies, and including Masonicare’s (the Grand Lodge Charity) fund matching, this delivered $10,000 to bring a little joy to sick kids in local hospitals.

Business with a Heart was created by Tania, who was given a less than 2% chance of survival at birth. Within her first six months of life she had three heart surgeries, suffered a stroke and spent her first Christmas in hospital after having suffered a second stroke and heart failure.
Throughout these (and more) experiences in hospital, she was never without her teddy bear, helping keep her calm and providing a small sense of her home life through the most difficult of times.

After defying such odds, Tania was determined to live her best life. She went on to complete her schooling, graduate from university, and create Business with a Heart to gift kids in hospitals around Australia teddy bears like the one that helped her through her early life.

One important takeaway from our BBQ day is the importance of developing strong working relationships with local community organisers. We’d run previous successful BBQs, always following the rules and tidying up after ourselves, which builds a good reputation for being reliable and easy to work with. So when Bunnings needed to fill their slot they came straight to us to help out. And how could we say no to raising money for our Local Community?

The previous BBQ we ran was in aid of Central Coast ARAFMI, at which we were able to raise a similar amount of money. Central Coast ARAFMI is dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of families and individuals across the Central Coast. We recently received a lovely letter of thanks from Rhonda Wilson CEO, which reads in part:
“Your contribution makes a meaningful difference. Thanks to your generosity, we can provide an environment where people can maintain a sense of community and develop new initiatives. Your support not only strengthens our organisation but also uplifts the people we serve every day.”

Well-deserved thanks go out to those who’ve helped at this and previous fundraisers and to the community at large for being hungry and generous in equal measure!