The last day of May was a big one for Rotary as the Saturday date marked a massive flood benefit show with a performance from country music legend Travis Collins at the Yass Clubhouse.
Last Tuesday evening, Yass Rotary President, Simon Bernhard, reached out to Travis Collins, after Travis posted that he was in the Southern Tablelands and keen to headline a Flood Benefit Show.
By the very next day, the Clubhouse Hotel Yass had generously come on board to sponsor and host the event, and the Rotary Club of Yass committed to managing the fundraiser. Tickets went live on Thursday morning—a full concert organised with just three days’ notice.
This benefit was held to support Rotary District 9660 (Mid-North Coast), who just days earlier had ramped up in their urgent response to the devastating flood that destroyed lives, homes, jobs and livestock. Their immediate relief initiative is distributing debit cards through local clubs in the hardest-hit areas, and Rotary said the first batch went out last week.
President of Yass Rotary, Simon said he was amazed to see so many locals brave the cold to come out and support this important cause.
“It was an amazing night. Huge support from the locals, great support from the Clubhouse Hotel and Travis himself. Even a local, Megan Baragry, came up and did the starting act. It was just a really great night,” he said.
“We haven’t got the official number yet, but we raised close to $5,000, so that’s really good news, and we were really well supported by local businesses as well.
“A lot of people really threw their support behind this and it was a great night for everyone.
“We are sending it straight to [Rotary District 9660], what they’ve been doing with it is getting Woolworths vouchers and Kmart vouchers and dispersing them on the ground.
“It’s been really good for us from the perspective of being able to pull this all together in about four days. At the end of the day, we’re a service organisation, our club itself had already donated $1,000 from our own members, but this just means that we could support them so much more. I suppose the way I look at it, these things are really good for the community and the community here in Yass really supports the initiatives that we put forward. It means we can help more people.
“Travis was great. Really supportive of us all the way through. How it basically happened, he put a Facebook post out around Wednesday last week, saying that he’d like to do a flood relief concert. He was free of charge on the night, so he didn’t charge his usual rates and all that. Rotary reached out to him on the Wednesday and then by the Thursday, he’d written back and said, “yeah, I’d love to do it. How can I help and what do you need?”
“We went and hit everyone up and spoke to the Clubhouse Hotel who were really supportive and they funded all the equipment and everything, as well as the accommodation for the night for the musos, and that’s pretty much how it all happened.
“I met Travis on the night, absolutely amazing bloke, really wanted to do something on a night off to help out. He was originally from up that way as well. He was really happy that even though we’re a long way away from where he was, that we were happy to support and put all our efforts in, and he was very happy that the money was going straight onto the ground. We already had something set up rather than going off into the oblivion and not know where the money is really going, we know where the money’s going straight away.
“I was excited, but a bit shocked and a bit overwhelmed. I got a lot of support from Mandy, but also the whole of the Rotary Club and we all just came together in three days and made it happen.
“It was one of those impromptu things we weren’t expecting it, but it also showed how amazing that the club is, because as soon as I told Mandy and I told our secretary, Mick Newling, they said, “yeah, go for it. We’ll make it happen.”
“There’s not many organisations that can do that.
“A big thank you to Travis, Megan, the Clubhouse Hotel, and all the businesses that supported us in Yass. A big thank you to all our Rotarians as well, both from our club, as well as the ones that came in from other clubs to support us.”
Sometimes a spontaneous event can also be the most spectacular.
-Jack Murray
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