At the end of last month, Murrumbateman local and Eagles supporter, Steve ‘Evo’ Everson allowed his head to be shaved in front of more than 200 people at the Murrumbateman Pub and Country Inn.
Everson’s sister, Julie, has been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and he decided to do something about it.
All the money raised went to the McGrath Foundation, to fund breast care nurses right across Australia.
On Friday 24 February, Everson had his hair spray painted pink before going under the clippers to raise money for his ‘Shave for Sis’ campaign, with his sister Julie watching it all unfold while on Facetime.
Everson had original expectations of raising $1,000, which soon became $2,000.
However, with the absolute generosity of the wonderful Murrumbateman community – individuals, families, businesses and community groups, Everson’s ‘Shave for Sis’ campaign raised an outstanding grand total of $7,667.
As part of the fundraising efforts, Eagles Club President, Andy Ingold, donated two of his Murrumbateman Football Club guernseys, raising $750 at auction.
Ingold spoke to The Times about the proceedings and praised the generosity of the local community.
“Evo’s efforts were massive. He raised some incredible money for the McGrath Foundation. His sister is going through a breast cancer struggle and I was there when he brought it up,” Ingold said.
“He wanted to shave his head and thought I’d raise $1,000 out of it and donate that. I took it to the Eagles committee and said we should make a donation and see if we could get some other community groups to get involved.
“We donated a bit, and some other groups did as well. I donated one of my guernseys from our second year, as well as one of the premiership guernseys from last year that didn’t get used. Those guernseys raised $750 between them.
“Some wines also got auctioned off that our secretary Brent Lello organised.”
Ingold was proud of the local Murrumbateman community and how well-supported the campaign was.
“It was very well supported by our local community. A lot of people got around it, so it was a great night for a great cause,” Ingold continued.
“Evo is a follower of the Eagles and was certainly at a few games last year, including the grand final victory. We are a community club, people come and watch us and we want to give back.
“Obviously, with the cause and our own Tony Graham passing away earlier this year, it’s pretty close to our hearts. We thought what better way to give back to our community and give to a great cause at the same time?
“It’s a great representation of what the Club and community is about. We are a community Club. It’s about supporting these types of projects and in return, they support us, that’s how communities work. We don’t expect anything in return but a lot of people get behind us, like we get behind them.”
Brent Lello, a good friend of Steve, has stepped in as interim secretary in place of Tony until the next AGM.
“Brent did a lot of the auctioning and organising the prizes for that. It was a great effort from him. Of course, Steve himself, a top job for raising so much money for a great cause.”
Tim warren
